ASIC scrutinising SOA templates, warns lawyer
Licensed accountants have been warned that ASIC is closely analysing whether the statement of advice templates and other legal documents they use are suitable for the types of advice services they provide.
Sophie Grace manager of licensing and compliance Alicia Pevely says while accountants who are authorised representatives are generally provided with statement of advice templates and disclosure documents by their dealer group, many accountants are not reading through them to ensure they are suitable.
"One of the issues we see in particular, and that ASIC is picking up on, is people using template documents when they haven’t looked at them to determine whether or not it is actually suitable for their business and that’s a big problem.,” Ms Pevely said.
She said accountants who are authorised representatives should be looking carefully at the templates they receive and changing parts of it where necessary in order to make sure it reflects their business.
“That is something that if ASIC was planning to do a review of your files, disclosure documents or compliance arrangements that they will pick up on.,” Ms Pevely said.
"It’s not particularly hard to determine whether it’s a template that has no real relevance to your business. So that’s certainly something as we see as an ongoing issue."
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
