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Articles

MDA Reporting Season: Is Your MDA Ready?

August 17, 2026

If your regulated platform handles annual MDA reporting, it’s easy to assume the job is done, but some MDA-specific obligations can still sit with the provider. This article explains where the reporting gap can arise and how to close it without duplicating the suitability review.
Decorative image. A large golden '1' is in the middle of a busy business district. People in suits look on with a variety of reactions; shock, anger, curiosity.

Standard 1: Acting in Accordance With the Law

July 30, 2026

Standard 1 sounds simple: comply with the law and do not work around its intent. In practice, it is a test of whether advisers use scope, disclosure and process honestly—or as cover for avoiding difficult obligations. This article explains what Standard 1 looks like in real advice files and what advisers and licensees should check next.

When Good Advice Cannot Be Proven: System Failures During a Regulatory Review

July 20, 2026

Good advice is only defensible when the evidence supporting it can be found, reproduced and understood. This article examines how fragmented records, broken links, weak version control and overreliance on system logs can undermine an otherwise sound advice file during a regulatory review. See what advisers and licensees can do to build records that stand on their own when scrutiny arrives.

What Is Compliance Documentation? A Practical Guide for Licensees

July 14, 2026

Compliance documentation is more than a collection of policies; it is the operational framework that enables AFSL and ACL licensees to demonstrate their compliance. This practical guide explains the roles of different documents, and shows why regulators are interested not just in what your documents say, but what your business can prove.

Better Advice Businesses Are Built on Evidence, Capacity and Control

July 6, 2026

Better advice businesses are built on evidence, capacity and control, not good intentions alone. We explore why commercial sustainability, disciplined workflows and reliable recordkeeping are essential compliance controls for financial advice practices.
Frustrated customer making a complaint, representing complaints handling and internal dispute resolution for Australian Credit Licensees.

A Practical Complaints Guide for Australian Credit Licensees

June 10, 2026

Customer complaints are more than a compliance obligation—they're one of the clearest indicators of how well an Australian Credit Licensee's governance framework is operating. This practical guide explains ASIC's expectations under Regulatory Guide 271, how to recognise and investigate complaints, identify systemic issues, meet IDR reporting obligations and use complaint data to strengthen compliance and customer outcomes.
Conflicting views: Identifying interests and influences

Conflicting views: Identifying interests and influences

March 12, 2018

Smarter Compliance. CURATED CONTENT: Conflicts exist in all commercial enterprises and, in businesses providing fiduciary-like services, can manifest in ways apart from group product recommendations and preferential remuneration. Referral arrangements, APL construction and service choices (for example, managed accounts) can, and often are, situations where the interests of the licensee conflict with the clients' interests. This article introduces three sources we've found useful for identifying conflicts and considering how to manage those that can't be avoided.

Crises of culture

April 12, 2014

Smarter Compliance. A recent report on the financial services industry noted that while industry executives "champion the importance of ethical conduct …. they struggle to see the benefits of greater adherence to ethical standards". So how do we reconcile statements that "ethical conduct is just as important as financial success at their firm" with acknowledgements "that strict adherence to such codes [makes] career progression difficult." What does this contradiction really mean for Compliance Managers and shareholders?

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