ASIC adviser ban upheld by AAT

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

30 March 2023

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) has upheld a ban of a financial adviser administered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and refused a subsequent stay application.

Gold Coast-based Jeneve Matai of National Advice Solutions was banned for providing financial services for four years from 13 December last year, after the corporate regulator found he did not “act in the best interests of clients, the advice was not appropriate and he prioritised his interests (or that of his AFS licensee) over the interests of the client”.

Matai submitted the application for the AAT to review ASIC’s decision a day after the ban. The AAT refused the stay application on 22 February 2023, but is yet to set a hearing date for the review of ASIC’s decision.

During ASIC’s investigation, it was found Matai provided advice through what his licensee called a “layered advice” strategy, where the advice was split into pre-determined topics and disregarded clients’ personal circumstances, goals or needs. This strategy also allowed superannuation and insurance advice to be provided separately even though insurance was held within the super fund in certain cases.

“ASIC found that by using the layered advice strategy, the advice was templated, inappropriately scoped, and Mr Matai failed to identify or consider the relevant circumstances of the clients when preparing the advice. This included when recommending the client participate in an ongoing advice arrangement,” ASIC’s announcement said.

“ASIC also found that although Mr Matai was not responsible for the design and implementation of the layered advice strategy, as a financial adviser he is required to comply with financial services laws, and cannot assign his obligations to others.

“Mr Matai also audited the files of other financial advisers on an as needed basis, and ASIC found that he failed to identify issues that a competent person auditing the files would have identified.”