FSCP slaps prohibition order on adviser

A New South Wales financial adviser has been barred from re-registering as a relevant provider for two and a half years after the Financial Services and Credit Panel (FSCP) found serious and prolonged failures in client reviews, fee arrangements and cooperation with his licensee.

The FSCP cancelled Evan James Byrnes' registration, with the prohibition taking effect on October 23 and running until after 23 April 2029.

During that period, Byrnes cannot be registered as a relevant provider or give personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products.

The sitting panel found that Byrnes breached the Code of Ethics requirements under section 921E(3) of the Corporations Act 2001, including obligations relating to trustworthiness, competence, honesty and diligence.

Its findings included inadequate records of annual client reviews over several years, alongside ongoing advice fees charged to some clients who did not receive all the services they were paying for.

The panel also found Byrnes failed to respond adequately to requests from his licensee during audits and investigations into his annual review arrangements.

It considered the record-keeping failures and lack of cooperation as "serious, prolonged and inconsistent with the standards expected of a registered financial adviser."

The FSCP is an administrative decision-making body that considers adviser conduct matters referred by ASIC. Its sitting panel comprises an ASIC staff member and at least two industry members drawn from the panel.

Under section 921L(1) (c) of the Corporations Act, the FSCP can prohibit an individual from being registered as a relevant provider.

In other decisions handed down this month, the FSCP found an adviser it referred to only as "Ms K" miscalculated the amount of concessional contributions the client could make in the 2024 financial year, triggering the bring-forward arrangement from the 2024 financial year.

The advice envisaged that the bring-forward arrangement would commence from the 2025 financial year. The relevant provider also failed to take reasonable steps to verify the client's position regarding his concessional and non-concessional contributions before advising the client to implement the bring-forward strategy in that financial year.

"Ms Q" on the other hand was ordered to undertake at least five hours of continuing professional education in the next six months comprising two hours of ongoing fee arrangements training, and three hours of ethics and professionalism in financial planning and financial advice training.

This adviser entered into an ongoing fee agreement with a client in November 2022, the FSCP said, which the client terminated in an email to the relevant provider in October 2023.

The relevant provider continued to receive fees under the agreement until August 2025 but did not provide a financial advice service.