The court made its declaration against Tidswell Financial Services this week after its RSE licence was cancelled in June.
Between 30 November 2016 and 14 February 2018, Tidswell was found to have failed to adequately monitor MobiSuper (the promoter of one of its super sub-funds) to ensure business model risks were addressed and failed to comply with Prudential Standard SPS 231 Outsourcing as issued by APRA.
“Superannuation represents the future financial security of Australians and as the conduct regulator for superannuation, ASIC is dedicated to promoting trust and confidence in the superannuation system,” ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said.
“ASIC will continue to work to ensure trustees comply with their obligations to properly monitor the promotion of their products by outsourced service providers.”
Justice Jackson added: “[A] superannuation trustee cannot outsource its responsibilities to the present and potential members of its superannuation funds.
“Depending on the circumstances, it will often be necessary for the trustee to take active steps to make sure that the functions performed on its behalf by others are performed in the best interests of members.”
Justice Jackson further said that Tidswell “needed to monitor what Mobi actually did, including how it marketed its services on its websites after initial approval for the websites was given, and what the CSOs (customer service operators) said to individual consumers”.
ASIC’s court action against Mobi, as well as ZIB Financial and Andrew Grover (a director of Mobi and ZIB) is set for trial in November.
Neil Griffiths
Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.
Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.
