Fourth Line’s Post

A great question in Ensombl recently. "Can a person be re-registered as a Financial Adviser when: * previously authorised to provide advice (pre 2019), * completed fasea ethics unit but hasn't sat the fasea exam yet * has remained in the industry in client service>Paraplanning Can he can jump straight back into advice if he sat the adviser exam, or would he need to do the Professional Year?" ** Answer ** The answer will depend on the following: ^^ Step 1 - Does he class as an "existing adviser" under the legislation - ie was he authorised to provide personal advice at any time between 1/1/2016 and 31/12/2018? If "yes", he is considered an "existing adviser". ^^ Step 2 - was his AR voluntarily withdrawn before the relevant FASEA/ASIC Financial Adviser Exam deadline? Based on the information provided by the Questioner, it appears he has not attempted the exam, and his AR was revoked (voluntarily / no issues) sometime pre 2019. If this is correct, then he can be authorised to provide personal advice once he passes the ASIC Financial Adviser exam. For clarity, he will not be treated as a "new entrant" and will not have to complete a PYr. ^^ Step 3 - does he need to complete Higher Education requirements (in addition to the ethics courses he has already completed) by 2026 or is he exempt under the "10-year experienced adviser" rule? If he has 10 years or more cumulative experience in providing personal advice to retail clients between 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2021 & has a "clean" disciplinary record as at 31 December 2021, then he may be eligible for the 10 year "experienced adviser" exemption. This means he would not have to complete further higher education studies before 31/12/2015. If he does not qualify under the 10 year exemption, he will need to complete additional Higher Education studies to retain his AR status post 31/12/2025 (assuming he sits the exam and is re-registered as an adviser).

Did you know that 4 out of the 8 ASX listed advice companies are Fourth Line clients, with most being long-standing ones? Which ones? * Diverger * Sequoia * Count * WT Financial Group ** Why? ** Because many of these licensees have forward-looking, progressive advice monitoring and supervision frameworks in place. They prevent advice to get ahead of any advice issues, avoid complaints, and mitigate any breach reporting situations. The Fourth Line reports and data dashboard enable licensees to engage collaboratively to coach their advisers and help improve the quality of advice. The Fourth Line platform allows licensees to redeploy their Advice Support Teams from lower-value tasks (file audits) to higher-value tasks (coaching and practice management guidance), which leads to improved advice practice cultures and profitability. Thanks for sharing this information Jasmine Siljic. #financialadvice #advicecompliance #regetech #prevet

Prevet advice? As one Fourth Line client said to me today, "It's a no-brainer. Why isn't every AFSL doing it?" Another Fourth Line client which is an individual Advice Practice (that does not hold its own AFSL) said, "We, as a practice, want to be across every piece of advice before it walks out the door - it just makes sense. We don't want a Breach Reporting situation to be the first time we hear about an issue." Another long-term Fourth Line client added something further, "We use Fourth Line as a coaching and collaboration tool. Why wouldn't you prevent every piece of advice - a few dollars now versus potential complaints, AFCA dramas, and thousands of dollars in costs and wasted time - why would you put yourself through it?" ** For clarity, when I say "prevet" in the context of Fourth Line I mean we look at the entire advice creation process (discovery, profiling, file notes, research, etc) which culminates in the creation of the SOA / ROA. ** Want to know more about the Fourth Line Advice Monitoring & Supervision solution? Call me on 0408 056 679 or ... Email me at joel.ronchi@fourth-line.com.au or ... DM me at Joel Ronchi

This is the exact reason why Financial Advisers and Licensees need to prevet financial advice - to get ahead of any complaints. Our client at Fourth Line use us for this exact reason - to check the advice before it goes to the client. By doing so, it: * mitigates the risk of complaints * helps to avoid possible reportable situations under the Breach Reporting Obligations. Some important insights from AFACA ... * “At first, (AFCA) monitored complaint volumes to understand if such growth was an aberration or if we were entering a ‘new normal’ for EDR. After more than 18 months of consistently high numbers, it’s evident this growth is sustained – and something we must all act on to address." * “Responsibility for complaints handling principally sits with members. They are your customers. You know your business, your products and services best. How you treat your clients, how you communicate with them, and how you resolve their issues are all within your control."

Thanks for sharing my thoughts Oksana Patron and nice to be in the company of Rhett Das. The imminent implementation of the QAR (Quality of Advice Review) is the perfect opportunity for AFSLs and individual Advice Practices, of all sizes, to pause and rethink their advice monitoring and supervision strategy. At Fourth Line, as a Regteh advice assurance provider, we have reviewed almost 14,000 SOAs (and associated advice documents) over the last 4 years. It's been encouraging to see a lot of AFSLs, self-licensed practices, and individual advice practices embrace the idea of prevetting advice, and actually implementing it into their business processes. The QAR won't change this - it will actually support the importance of prevetting by ensuring the entire advice creation process retains adequate records of the rationale supporting the advice and product selection. Fourth Line

PI Insurance is the bane of AFSLs. It's a necessary cost of doing business, but many AFSLs simply "renew" their cover with their insurance broker without thinking twice about it. At Fourth Line, we have been able to have a positive impact on the ability of our AFSL clients to get PI renewal through on favourable terms. At Fourth Line, we've heard firsthand from our AFSL clients how they have been able to get renewal b/c they are outsourcing advice monitoring and supervision to Fourth Line. Fourth Line is working with Numerisk. to take this to the next level and truly shake up the PI insurance market for AFSLs - watch this space for more news to come. Numerisk, which recently launched in the Australian market, is a data-driven PI solution that considers a broad range of variables in the underwriting and pricing process to ensure AFSLs get the best possible deal based on the licensee's UNIQUE circumstances. For AFSLs that prevet advice, this can lead to a lower risk profile from a PI perspective which may lead to reduced premiums &/or enhanced policy terms. If you'd like to have a chat about this, please feel free to reach out to me Joel Ronchi or Richard Silberman to find out more. PS - there are some great insights from Richard in the article below.

Financial Advice Monitoring and Supervision is not just something AFSLs do. Individual advice practices also see the benefits of an effective in-house advice oversight program. Why? * Because it is used as a Pre-vet tool, helping Practice Principals get ahead of any advice issues I like to refer to this as a "pre-vent" tool. * by identifying issues, the practice can use the process as a learning and collaboration tool (as opposed to a punitive audit tool, which advice oversight is often seen to be). * avoids any breach reporting issues as the practice can pick up advice issues before the advice is delivered to clients. Many AFSLs still employ a traditional, backward-looking adviser audit program that only identifies issues after the advice has been presented to the client, meaning these issues must be reported to ASIC. ** Benefits of using Fourth Line at the advice practice level ** Fourth Line's technology provides Practice Principals and Practice Managers with solutions. The Fourth Line platform generates an easy-to-understand "exceptions report" that can be used as a training tool to improve advice processes and individual adviser behaviours. Are you a Practice Principal or Practice Manager and want to know more about the Fourth Line platform? To organise an obligation-free demonstration and pilot program ... * DM me here Joel Ronchi or * call me on 0408 056 679 or * email me at joel.ronchi@fourth-line.com.au