Editor's Choice
Australia, UK partner to procure well-regulated financial markets
|Following its inaugural meeting in September 2025, the second UK-Australia Joint Financial Regulatory Forum took place this week, with Australia remaining vocal about placing greater emphasis on governance and asset valuation of private markets.
Count takes 30% stake in Brisbane advice firm
|Count has agreed to acquire a 30% stake in Brisbane-based accounting and financial advice firm Apiary Financial, continuing its push to expand its equity partnership network while reporting stronger first-quarter earnings.
Audit quality continues to fall short: ASIC
|The corporate regulator has called for improvements in audit quality and financial reporting after its latest surveillance found companies, including superannuation funds, are still not getting the fundamentals right.
ETFs entering 3.0 era: JPMAM
JPMAM believes thematic ETFs may become a thing of the past as actively managed ETFs become more prevalent.
Further Reading
Products
Expert Feed
When geopolitics becomes a portfolio risk
Geopolitics is back - again - and Australian investors can no longer treat it as distant background noise.
Does association membership still matter?
With all the changes the advice sector has experienced in recent years, such as regulatory reform and increased education and professional standards ...
Digital assets and where they stand in 2026
So far in 2026 digital assets have captured the headlines largely for the wrong reasons, but that doesn't tell the full story.
Rethinking default design in a changing market environment
The evolution underway in the US DC system highlights the value of periodically reassessing default design assumptions.
Featured Profile
Jacqueline Fernley
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
ARC POINT OCIO PTY LTD
ARC POINT OCIO PTY LTD
Jacqueline Fernley is a self-confessed nerd, a market animal and as of this year, her own boss. Riddhima Talwani writes.
The Financial Standard podcast Tune in each week as we discuss the latest developments in Australia's wealth management industry. |  |
To little too late again.
To fix the CBA/ Fin Wiz problem ASIC needs to have the courage to suspend ALL CBA/Fin Wiz licensees immediately, include all names that the Bank hides behind.
Suspension to be lifted when ALL victims have been fully compensated for what they lost, not some estimate from CBA/Financial Wisdom that based on their modelling the client would have been worse off if invested correctly according to their investment risk profile.
In calculations I have been a party to, the CBA says the client lost nothing, forensic accountant says $400,000 and if borrowings had been secured by unencumbered property instead of a margin loan they could have lost over $1,000,000 on what they could have made if they had been given good advice.
The way CBA and Financial Wisdom have responded is only making matters worse
The only benefit out of this arrangement for anyone will be the hourly charge out rate by the engagement partners of Korda Mentha. (Lets have a guess, 3 staff x $600 per hour X 8 hours per day by 12 months) for what? A report to ASIC and recommendations to CBA et al. to demonstrate compliance. After 12 months then what? Another report . What we have is regulation via consultancy. What has to happen is that all previous claims need to be honoured on the basis that the advice was flawed regardless of whether in fact that was the case, cancel the AFSL and then let CBA reapply and demonstrate that it can satisfy the requirement to provide professional advice for each client dependent upon each clients own circumstances. As for the advisers when the licence is cancelled they can retrain, do something else or get employment in the profession if they are good enough. Lets start worrying about the clients not about the brand of CBA.