The status of the provisional adviser must be clearly disclosed to each retail client BEFORE the provisional adviser provides any oral or written advice.
The law requires the responsible Licensee to ensure that, before the provisional adviser has any direct or indirect interaction with a retail client, the client is provided with a written notice:
confirming that that the person is undertaking supervised work and training; and
providing the name and details of the provisional adviser’s supervisor.
“I think that when important advice is given orally …, a failure to follow up that oral advice with a letter, or at least to note the advice by means of a file note, particularly where the subject matter of the advice is relevant to the existence of a conflict of interest or where the client has indicated that he or she does not wish to follow the express advice given, is extraordinary and sufficiently remarkable as to induce doubt whether the advice was given at all.”
— Sewell v Zelden [2010] NSWSC 1180 at 56
We’re often asked what makes “a good file-note” and we’re often asked to provide templates that meet, or exceed, our expectations.
This may help.
In practice, a failure to appropriately document client conversations, answers or agreements is not simply inconvenient, it’s potentially problematic for you and your business. In the event of any claim, investigation or review, poor file-noting undermines your credibility and exposes you to additional risk.
Where an SoA has been previously provided, where a client’s circumstances have not significantly changed since that SoA and where the subsequent advice is consistent with your original advice, you have the capacity to use a Record of Advice. The RoA, a record of which needs to be maintained for 7 years, is a file-note that sets out the advice given to the client, or brief particulars of the recommendation made to the client, including the basis upon which the recommendations were made.
If it includes a recommendation to fully or partially replace one financial product with another, the RoA has to contain that information in full or have brief particulars of that information, including the costs of replacement.
Interestingly, unlike the SoA, there is no requirement for an adviser to automatically provide a client with a copy of the RoA. It therefore simply functions as an advanced file note which confirms the nature of the discussions and the disclosures and qualifications made.