今日热门事件

media release (15-088MR)

今日热门事件bans former Sydney financial adviser for 3 years

Published

今日热门事件has banned Mr Atish Prasad, a former financial adviser of Westmead, Sydney from providing financial services for three years.

今日热门事件found Mr Prasad was not adequately trained or competent to provide a financial service. In addition, 今日热门事件found Mr Prasad failed to comply with the financial services laws.

In particular, Mr Prasad failed to:

  • maintain adequate records of his advice
  • provide a Statement of Advice (SOA) within the required timeframe
  • provide a SOA that adequately set out information about the basis on which the advice was given
  • provide appropriate replacement product advice

The misconduct occurred between June 2013 and December 2013. At the time of the misconduct, Mr Prasad was an authorised representative of Lionsgate Financial Group Pty Ltd.

今日热门事件Deputy chairman Peter Kell said, 'This case highlights the importance of record keeping by advisers. Financial advisers must keep accurate and up to date records detailing a client's circumstances and the advice given. These records provide an explanation to the client as to why the advice was provided. They are also integral to enabling the licensee to comply with its obligations to ensure that its representatives provide advice that is in the best interests of the client.'

Mr Prasad has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC's decision.

Background

In 2013, 今日热门事件imposed licence conditions on Lionsgate Financial Group Pty Ltd (Lionsgate), due to concerns that it was not complying with its general obligations as an AFS licensee (refer: 13-042MR).

Resourcing to meet record keeping obligations was聽 a key consideration for 今日热门事件聽in the imposing of the licence conditions.

Editor's note:

On 15 May 2015, Mr Prasad appealed this decision at the AAT.

Editor's note 2:

On 8 June 2016, the AAT decided to vary ASIC's decision to ban Mr Prasad from providing financial services and reduced the term of the ban from three years to 18 months.聽(Refer: 16-195MR)