A former financial planner from Perth has entered into an enforceable undertaking (EU) with ASIC subsequent to an investigation by the industry regulator that found the individual gave inappropriate advice.
Danielle Russell, as part of the EU, has agreed to complete continued professional development education as specified by ASIC for a period of 18 months, and to have a senior financial planner, who is an authorised representative of the Australian financial services licensee Russell works for, perform quarterly reviews of the financial services she provides to her retail clients for a 12-month period.
The ASIC investigation into Russell's activities earlier in year found she had failed to adequately determine her clients' personal circumstances before recommending financial products to them.
It was also determined Russell didn't give proper regard to the information she received from her clients nor to the advice she was providing.
In particular, ASIC found Russell recommended managed investment schemes to clients that did not require tax-effective investments, recommended the implementation of margin lending strategies to clients without assessing cashflow capabilities to service the debt, changed asset allocations without client consent, recommended clients hold a portion of their portfolio in high risk products that conflicted her dealer group's portfolio weighting policy, and failed to regularly monitor her clients' investment portfolios.
Russell's breaches occurred when she was employed as an authorised representative of Infocus Securities Australia between July 2006 and November 2008.
