Legal obligations
Financial planners and advisers must be licensed in Australia before they can give you financial advice.
They must provide you with a financial services guide before giving you any advice. That guide sets out information such as how they get paid, what connections they have with products or companies that might influence their advice and how you can make a complaint.
In many instances they are required to provide their advice to you in writing.
For more information on the legal obligations of financial advisers, click here to view the ASIC FIDO website
Lost money? Bad advice?
Not all bad advice is negligent whether it is depends on your precise circumstances, what you ask for, what you tell your adviser, what they say to you and whether that is reasonable.
Are you entitled to compensation?
You might be entitled to compensation for losses you suffer because of the financial advice you have received. Your financial adviser may have:
The
case study below
gives an example of what might be a good claim for
compensation.
Having a claim is not the whole story there is little point chasing compensation if your financial adviser has no money and is uninsured, or if his or her insurance is not sufficient.
We can assist you with frank
advice
We represent people who have suffered
loss as a result of the misconduct of their financial advisers.
We will provide frank advice about the prospects of your case and the likelihood of recovering compensation. We will discuss your objectives and personal circumstances and formulate a dispute resolution strategy for you.
If your loss amounts to more than $150,000, your strategy may involve negotiation, mediation, litigation or a blend of all three.
If your loss amounts to less than $150,000, we may recommend that you refer your dispute, initially, to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
If you need some expert assistance, we can help you to prepare an application to FOS and with advice throughout the dispute resolution process.
Case study 1
Maree and Robert Walters, aged 57 and 62
respectively, were looking forward to retirement. They hoped to have an extended
overseas holiday each year and to buy a small beach shack near Inverloch. To
help them achieve their retirement goals, they sought the advice of their
trusted financial adviser, Tony.
Tony recommended that they:
However, a series of devastating margin calls forced them to
sell their home. They are now unable to purchase even a small apartment
outright. Poor management at Mildura Olives, in combination with
pervasive drought and summer bushfires, resulted in the winding up of the
managed investment scheme. Maree and Robert received only $50,000 out of the
$250,000 they had initially invested in Mildura Olives.
Furthermore, Tony failed to tell Maree and Robert that he had a financial interest in the management company responsible for Mildura Olives.
As a result of following Tonys recommendations, Maree and Robert are financially ruined and unable to retire for the foreseeable future. What are their legal options?
Maree and Robert may be able to recover their losses from Tony (and, potentially, his employer or insurer) if they can prove that Tony:
