ASIC has banned Queensland financial adviser Lawrence Toledo from providing financial services for seven years after it found Mr Toledo failed to properly identify what his clients wanted advice on and to reasonably investigate what financial products would suit their needs.
Mr Toledo also failed to understand what was required of him to comply with the best interests duty and provide advice that was appropriate to clients, according to ASIC.
ASIC’s surveillance of Mr Toledo looked at a number of his client files from Sentinel Private Wealth Pty Ltd, where he has been an authorised representative since March 2014.
Mr Toledo has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said financial advisers have a clear duty to act in their clients’ best interests.
“In some cases, advice to establish an SMSF for the sole purpose of purchasing a property may not be in a client’s best interests, particularly where the SMSF borrows funds to enable the purchase,” said Mr Kell.
Great to see ASIC is doing something about this
Fantastic – Sick of seeing Facebook ads saying if you have $120k in super you could buy a property. I had complained to ASIC about them and they sent me a generic letter saying they were taking no further action.
What a load of crap. Would be interested in seeing more of why he failed “best interests”. I’ve had people who were dead set on proceeding down the path of establishing an SMSF. They came into the meeting with factual (promotional?) information from a range of online providers, and were quite prepared to go down that road on their own.
What they were prepared to pay for was someone to give them some direction and assistance to navigate the pitfalls of going down this road. There is the choice of allowing someone go off an do it themselves (possibly badly) or assist them to do it right. Who knows if this is what Toledo has done but if it is, What is wrong with that?