Reprimands, warnings and a few adviser suspensions

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

6 August 2025

Two years after it was established as the Single Disciplinary Body covering the financial planning profession, the Financial Services and Credit Panel (FSCP) has issued plenty of reprimands and warnings, but only a few suspensions.

The FSCP handed down its first decision on 30 May, 2023, and initiated its first suspension of an adviser’s registration six months later and it took nearly a year before a second registration suspension order was issued in November, last year.

The panel announced a further “registration prohibition” against an adviser in February this year.

The FSCP adjudications also point to instances where self-licensed financial advisers and some working for so-called “micro-licensees” were required to report issues to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC),

At least two advisers were required to deal with ASIC on the basis of a retaining the services of an independent compliance professional.

In one such instance, the panel’s decision stated: “The relevant provider is required to provide the independent person’s findings as a result of their audit to ASIC, and the relevant provider must bear the cost of the work undertaken by the independent person under the written direction”

An examination of the FSCP’s adjudications points to financial advisers most often running into trouble when dealing with clients’ superannuation and non-concessional contributions in particular.

Despite outward perceptions of frequent financial adviser misconduct or failings, the FSCP has on average handled about 12 cases a year and in some instances has determined that no action was required.

The FSCP panels operate on the basis of an ASIC staff member and at least two of the 24 members appointed by the Treasury many of them experienced practicing advisers.