ASIC Update 8th December 2019 Dr Rhys Bollen, Senior Executive Leader of the Investment Manager Team within ASIC spoke at the Professional Planner Researchers Forum. Read on for IMAP's view of the high level takeouts from his presentation and  considerations for licensees who advise on managed accounts.

 CEO Angus Mason talks with Anne Hamieh of Xplore Wealth about how Cashel Family Office is using managed accounts and technology to better manage market volatility.

Simon Carrodus considers the legal and regulatory obligations for advisers when advising on managed accounts. This IMAP presentation was moderated by Jenny Mulders, Chair of the IMAP Regulatory Group.

The IMAP Regulatory Group was formed in September 2018. A key reason for the formation of the group was to ensure that the broad managed account community was well represented in issues that specifically affect providing and advising on managed accounts.

ASIC has announced that as at 23 March 2020 it has immediately suspended a number of near-term activities which are not time-critical,including a consultation paper on Managed Discretionary Accounts...

Updated guidance gives more clarity on how superannuation & managed investment product issuers & platform operators should disclose fees & costs.

For advisers to thrive in the delivery of managed account advice, they first need to understand the challenges involved in the advice process. Speaking at the IMAP InvestTech 2021 virtual conference, Rick Di Cristoforo - Director of Research Products AU/NZ at Morningstar - discusses six of these challenges

Financial advisers will be granted an additional three months to meet their required 40 hour CPD requirement. The decision to provide relief for advisers with their CPD requirements was made by the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) in response to business disruption caused by COVID-19. 

The IMAP Regulatory Group is currently focusing on a range of issues impacting the managed accounts sector. The Chair of the IMAP Regulatory Group, Jenny Mulders, outlines four of these key issues

IMAP and the Financial Services Council (FSC) have developed a template specifically for Managed Accounts that complies with the FSC developed industry data standards to facilitate compliance with the new Design & Distribution obligations (DDO) laws that take effect on 5th October 2021.

The IMAP Regulatory Group, chaired by Jenny Mulders of QRC Consulting, has written to FASEA CEO, Stephen Glenfield, outlining existing structural problems with the FASEA Code of Ethics, and calling for calls for a review of FASEA Standard 3. This standard became a legal requirement for all financial advisers from 1 January 2020

IMAP coordianted a submittion from teh managed accounts industry as a response to the Royal Commission Interim Report to illustrate that managed accounts can have positive putcomes for the end investor. This submission makes reference to 5 of the particular issues raised in the Interim Report

IMAP responds to Treasury's Quality of Advice review saying that "the recommendation to give “good advice” instead of “act in the Best Interest of the Client” would replace a well understood duty which imposes clear obligations on both the person and organisation providing the advice with a far less rigorous standard."

Both Best Interest Duties and the obligation to deliver service “Efficiently, Honestly, Fairly” mean a managed account service is a better way for advisers to provide the service that clients are lead to believe they will receive says Toby Potter IMAP Chair

The adoption of managed accounts over the past three or four years – there is now approximately $60 billion invested in various forms of SMA and MDA – has been driven by a number of separate factors.

Eleanor Menniti (Lonsec), Uwe Helmes (BlackRock), and Julian Lefcovitch (North) explore the challenges and benefits of bringing a scaleable custom managed portfolio solution to market.

The Chair of the IMAP regulatory Group, Adam Seccombe, provides a review of the work done by the group and looks ahead at the work to be completed.

The IMAP Regulatory Group was invited to participate in an open forum with ASIC, based on the surveillance ASIC conducted during 2019 on platform operators, SMA and MDA providers. PLease read on for an update as at March 2020.

Following the Royal Commission's recommendation, the Australian Treasury released a consultation paper just before Xmas 2019 on the proposed Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR).

This is a fund which will compensate clients of most financial services who win a compensation payment through AFCA or some other process. 

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