{"id":514078,"date":"2026-06-02T04:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/514078\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T04:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T04:03:11","slug":"managed-accounts-complaints-up-25-afca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/514078\/","title":{"rendered":"Managed accounts complaints up 25%: AFCA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority\u00a0(AFCA)\u00a0has seen a rise in complaints related to\u00a0managed accounts.<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking at the My Dealer Services conference in Sydney last week, AFCA\u00a0senior ombudsman Nick\u00a0Batard\u00a0said managed accounts-related complaints are up 25 per cent, and while the actual number of\u00a0arguably low, they do highlight growing concern in\u00a0how some advisers are using them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve\u00a0had a 25\u00a0per cent\u00a0increase, but\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a very low\u00a0number,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a010 over the first half of the year, so we\u00a0actually don\u2019t\u00a0see it currently being as a massive problem of those complaints and.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost all\u00a0of them were focused on one of two things;\u00a0either investing outside the investment program or conflicts of interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In August,\u00a0ASIC released its FY2025-26 Corporate Plan<\/a>\u00a0outlining its intention, to conduct surveillance on AFSLs recommending and offering managed accounts to retail clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will consider compliance with the general licensee obligations and advice conduct obligations. Our surveillance will focus on governance frameworks, management of conflicts of interest, and outcomes for consumers,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This comes as more advisers are turning to managed accounts as an efficient, professional-grade investment solutions, something is particularly attractive for\u00a0advisers\u00a0who are notoriously time-poor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kirkland explained that the regulator had not enacted a close assessment of the managed account space for\u00a0a number of\u00a0years, but now believed a review was \u201cwarranted and timely\u201d given the growth in the space and potential risks it was\u00a0observing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll\u00a0examine how financial advisers, when they recommend managed accounts,\u00a0comply with\u00a0their obligations to act in the best interests of their clients. And we will be examining what conflicts of interest may be present, and how these conflicts are addressed by advisers and licensees,\u201d Kirkland said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll\u00a0be looking at what conflicts may arise, what challenges they may present, and how\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0being managed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joining\u00a0Batard\u00a0on the MDS panel, FAAA general manager of \u2026, advocacy and standards said they expect the report will be handed down later this year or early next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that their particular interest is conflicts of interest, and whether they are being used in the genuine interest of clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[Managed accounts]\u00a0have a real role to play. They do make it much more efficient. You\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0have to\u00a0provide\u00a0further advice when\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0changing a portfolio, but I think\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0going to look closely at how interest conflicts are managed and making sure that fees that are being generated are reasonable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u00a0keep an eye on what ASIC has to say about that over the\u00a0remainder\u00a0of this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This issue is one\u00a0in particular that\u00a0the FAAA has been consistently tracking with the\u00a0association\u2019s\u00a0chief executive, Sarah Abood,\u00a0telling the IMAP Portfolio Management Conference in March<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0she was concerned about whether the inquiry is a \u2018risk weighted\u2019 review.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A risk-weighted review is where ASIC explores areas where it already knows problems exists rather than one which covers the whole sector.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cASIC has, on occasion, done reviews into rectors are what they call risk weighted and that means that they\u2019ve gone out and looked for places where they know there are problems,\u201d Abood said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat becomes a problem if the report is presented as a report into the sector or on the current state of the sector. The most recent one was Australian super funds. So, it was a risk weighted exercise, it was in the report, but a lot of media\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0pick up on\u00a0it\u00a0and it was reported as a report into the super sector.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0still unclear, she suggested that taking a risk weighted approach may cause undue damage if ASIC\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0make it explicitly clear as it could see the profession tarred with the same brush.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abood added: \u201cWe don\u2019t know whether this is that, but it will be important for us to know when the report comes out, whether this was targeted to areas where ASIC believes are high risk or whether it\u2019s an impartial inquiry across the whole sector. We\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know yet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Abood,\u00a0ASIC has suggested that an update can be expected by the of the 2026 calendar year, \u201cbut\u00a0there\u2019s no commitments to any dates or specific targets at this stage\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Financial Complaints Authority\u00a0(AFCA)\u00a0has seen a rise in complaints related to\u00a0managed accounts.\u00a0 Speaking at the My Dealer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[19523,79,18,110981,19,17,197508,222717,234,235],"class_list":["post-514078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-afca","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-faaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-managed-accounts","tag-mds","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}