ASIC has suspended the licence of advisory firm Seagrims Accountants & Financial Planners, with dealer group Wealthsure set to act as the group's licensee and provide financial advice to its 4000 clients.
In a letter sent on 1 July, Seagrims managing director Peter Seagrim informed its network of clients of the corporate regulator's decision to temporarily suspend the firm's licence due to a number of compliance concerns.
Seagrim said after ASIC's 20-month investigation into the group's links to Astarra Asset Management, the regulator had found concerns with 20 of the 1000 statements of additional advice the group posted to clients.
"This was during the middle of the global financial crisis and during harvest when clients were difficult to contact," the letter said.
"The breach stems from us not correctly asking or recording about whether the clients' current situation had changed before we made the recommendations to change investments."
Under ASIC's suspension period, Seagrims will become a corporate authorised representative of Wealthsure.
"The support from them [Wealthsure] going forward will be enormous and enable our staff to become more productive with you, our client," the letter said.
As well as suspending the group's licence, ASIC also intends to restrict Seagrims' managers in their duties relating to providing clients with financial services for a period of time due to their role as the responsible managers, among other issues.
"In saying all of this, our business will continue to provide the help you have become accustomed to. [Director] Anne [Seagrims] and I are still at work as directors of the firm and so in that respect it is business as usual," the letter said.
"We are very fortunate to have such fabulous highly-qualified staff that will help us continue the journey to help you - one of our 4000 Seagrims clients."
