Make ASIC fund independent PDS assessments – AIOFP

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

2 March 2026

It is time for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to be more proactive with preventing Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) failures by funding an independent research panel, according to the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP).

The AIOFP has told the Treasury Review of the Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) regime that ASIC can well afford to fund such independent research.

“Considering ASIC are receiving over $340m annually from the Adviser Levy to prosecute those responsible for fraud and product failure, it is time to be more proactive with preventing PDS failure by ASIC funding an independent research panel to assess new PDS products before market release – this is not rocket science, it should be a fundamental duty of Government to protect consumers, the AIOFP document said.

“What the Profession needs is a non-conflicted research capability for the market generally and at the point of ASIC registering a PDS for Consumer assistance with decision making,” it said.

“If a professional Research panel rates a new PDS on a 1 – 10 score basis, any PDS scoring under 5 will be more than likely ignored and eventually be starved out of the market.”

The AIOFP said it must be incumbent on ASIC to provide that third party independent assessment mechanism for consumers “considering they are ‘registering’ a PDS for essentially market release”.

“It does not have to be as comprehensive as the ASX investment products monthly update; it can be totally outsourced to independent parties with ASIC indemnified against any liability. This has got to be better than a ‘caveat emptor’ warning,” the AIOFP said.

“ASIC using Adviser sourced capital to fund the panel will satisfy the conflict free funding test and eventually reduce the cost of advice for Consumers when Advisers no longer need other research sources.

“Leading Research House candidates for this role would be Mercer, Lonsec, Morningstar. We believe this approach is a win/win/win for Consumers, Advisers and common sense.”