Alert to all industry and retail superannuation funds – compliance with the proposed retirement income covenant (RIC) faces two major regulatory roadblocks: personal advice and anti-hawking. There is an urgent need for regulatory relief or reform in relation to this. There are two major regulatory problems that are thrown up by the recently proposed RIC, to … Read more

As recently recognised by our financial services partner Michael Vrisakis, understanding the Corporations law is much like unpacking Russian dolls. Put simply, complying with the Corporations law is more difficult than it needs to be. But we don’t need to tell you that. In its first (interim) Financial Services Legislation Report published yesterday, the ALRC … Read more

On 17 November 2021, ASIC released draft updated guidance on consumer remediation for all AFS licensees, Australian credit licensees and retirement savings account providers. The draft guidance is attached to Consultation Paper 350 Consumer remediation: Further consultation (CP 350). This article considers the key features of the draft guidance with a particular focus on significant … Read more

In this article, we look at how ASIC is reacquainting itself with one of the oldest tools in its enforcement toolkit: the court enforceable undertaking (CEU). ASIC’s new Chair Joe Longo has long signalled since commencing with the regulator in June that the “why not litigate?” enforcement mantra of predecessor James Shipton is a thing … Read more

It goes without saying that the new Best Financial Interests Duty (BFID) obligations are central to not just a superannuation trustee’s governance framework, but also its operational framework. As readers will be aware from our previous articles on this subject (see here and here), we are seeking to assist superannuation trustees to understand the duty … Read more

This article addresses the integration of the efficiently, honestly and fairly (EHF) obligation into the risk assessment and breach reporting frameworks of financial institutions that hold an AFSL. Central to this exercise is the integration of the EHF obligation into operational processes, procedures, decision-making and, last but not least, organisational culture. The role of fairness … Read more

By M Scott Donald and Ruth Stringer Amongst the measures introduced by the government in its Your Future Your Super policy initiative is a test of the historical performance of each MySuper product in the market.  Trustees whose MySuper product fail the performance test conducted annually by APRA will be required to send to all … Read more

We have previously written about our 12 principles that apply to the implementation of the new anti-hawking regime (NAHR), as well as some observations on the evolving structure of insurance contracts and distribution resulting from the NAHR. In this article, we make some further observations on the scope of an invitation, consent, causation, and the … Read more