Jaw dropping moments from Australia’s Royal Commission
By Kirsten Hastings, 20 Apr 18
It’s squeaky bum time for senior executives as Australia’s banking, superannuation and financial advice firms face the intense scrutiny of a Royal Commission. Click through the slides below to read some of the incredible moments from the first week of the review into financial advice.
Death and taxes are thought to be the only two certainties in life but some advisers at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) seemed to think that fees should also be included.
CBA’s Commonwealth Financial Planning business is under the cosh as it, along with its industry peers, charged clients for advice but failed to provide them with any service.
Taking things one step further, CBA advisers also continued charging customers after they had died.
In one instance, an adviser was unsure how to proceed after his client died in 2004, so opted to continue charging an advisers services fee and did so until 2015.
In a separate case, despite his client dying in 2007, an adviser continued to charge a monthly fee. Contact with the widow in 2013, but the adviser took no action to stop the charges.
When this was uncovered, CBA’s recommendation was to issue a formal warning to the adviser.
Tags: AMP | Australia | CBA | Royal Commission
