Financial adviser registration

Terms and conditions

1. You acknowledge that you are engaged by your Licensee and do not become an employee of, or contractor to, the Trustee by virtue of acceptance of these terms and conditions and registration with AustralianSuper by the Trustee.

2. The Trustee may ask you or your Licensee to provide documents and information and execute any documentation the Trustee reasonably requires before it will approve your registration with AustralianSuper as a Financial Adviser. Where any information is provided for the purposes of registration the Trustee will only use the information for the purposes of managing your registration as a Financial Adviser and any ongoing assurance which the Trustee conducts in connection with your registration. 

3. The Trustee may grant, withhold or withdraw its approval of your registration as a Financial Adviser in its absolute discretion. If the Trustee gives you or your Licensee a notice about the withdrawal of approval of your registration as a Financial Adviser, you will cease to be a registered Financial Adviser from the date specified by the Trustee in the notice. 

4. You acknowledge that the Trustee is obliged under laws which apply to it to determine whether an advice fee may properly be deducted from an AustralianSuper Member’s AustralianSuper Account and may determine that an advice fee may not be properly deducted.

Obligations

5. You agree you will;

(a) comply with; 

(i) all laws and regulations related to the provision of financial products and services, including;

(a) any requirement to provide Clients with product disclosure statements, financial service guides, Statements of Advice or any other disclosures required by the laws and regulations; and

(ii) any regulatory guides (with which a reasonably prudent member of the financial services industry would comply), directions, determinations, guidelines, prudential standards, prudential practice guides, covenants, class orders, conditions under any instrument of approval or licenses issued by a regulator in relation to the provision of financial products and services; and

(iii) all other requirements, code of ethics, standards or directions imposed or issued under any applicable Australian law or by a regulator;

(iv) any reasonable written instructions issued by the Trustee from time to time in relation to the provision of Services to Clients;

(b) fairly and accurately represent the AustralianSuper Superannuation Products and the AustralianSuper Pension Products to Clients and not make any statement in relation to those or any financial services which is inaccurate, misleading or untrue;

(c) not make any representation, warranty, projection or the like in relation to the performance of any AustralianSuper Product unless it is authorised in writing by the Trustee or is part of a personal advice recommendation contained in a Statement of Advice or Record of Advice;

(d) not complete or sign any application form on behalf of any Client, unless duly authorised to do so or under a valid power of attorney;

(e) make payments to the Trustee in respect of applications by electronic funds transfer or by cheque, and ensure that all such cheques are made payable as specified in the relevant product disclosure statement, and that all payments are forwarded to the Trustee with the completed application form, unless an alternative form of payment is agreed by the Trustee;

(f) not prepare, issue, distribute or circulate any material by way of advertising or otherwise in which the Fund or the Trustee, or any reference to the Fund or the Trustee, appears other than as issued or approved in writing by the Trustee;

(g) not contract any debt or liability for the Trustee or the Fund, or seek to bind the Trustee or the Fund, in any way except as otherwise stated or allowed under these terms and conditions or the agreement between your Licensee and the Trustee;

(h) hold secure all material to sales support materials, disclosure statements, computer programmes, promotional statements and other documentation in relation to the Products supplied by the Trustee;

(i) obtain and keep current any appropriate registration, authority or licence from the Licensee or from any relevant regulator or association as is necessary for you to provide the financial services;

(j) advise your Licensee and the Trustee immediately if your registration, authority or licence is suspended, cancelled or varied or if conditions are imposed on or added to such registration, authority or licence that may affect your compliance with the Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics;

(k) provide the Trustee on request with written evidence that you hold the appropriate authority, registration or licence;

(l) have at all times appropriate training, experience and qualifications to provide the financial services;

(m) maintain an effective dispute resolution procedure to deal with disputes in relation to Clients;

(n) to the extent that you make a request for a fee to be deducted from a Client’s AustralianSuper Account, comply with a request from the Trustee to provide documentation substantiating that fee deduction request,  including but not limited to a Statement of Advice, Record of Advice, Fee Disclosure Statement or any other agreement or consent relating to the payment of advice fees; and

(o) to the extent that an Ongoing Fee Arrangement is in place with a Client, comply with clause 5(a) of these terms and conditions insofar as they prescribe obligations in relation to Ongoing Fee Arrangements and provide the Trustee with information and documents, as reasonably requested, in relation to an Ongoing Fee Arrangement;

Making a request to deduct a fee

6. If you make a request for a fee to be deducted from a Client’s AustralianSuper Account, you must make that request in accordance with this section 6:

a.  Any fee which you seek to charge to the Trustee or deduct from a Client’s AustralianSuper Account must be on a fee-for-service basis only;

b. You must not inform a Client that the Client might be able to have an advice fee paid via deduction from the Client’s AustralianSuper Account, unless;

i.   you are registered with AustralianSuper as a Financial Adviser;

ii.  you have an arrangement in place with the Client for the provision of financial product advice and the payment of fees in respect of the provision of advice;

iii. The advice fees are sought to be deducted in connection with the provision of financial product advice in relation to the Client’s AustralianSuper Account;

c. You may only request an advice fee be deducted from a Client’s AustralianSuper Account in connection with the provision of financial product advice to the Client;

d. You may only request an advice fee be deducted from a Client’s AustralianSuper Account which is invested in the AustralianSuper Balanced (MySuper) option (AustralianSuper MySuper Account), if the advice fee is not an ongoing fee (that is, the fee must not be a fee which is payable under an ongoing fee arrangement between you and your client or your Licensee and the Client). If you make a request to deduct an advice fee from an AustralianSuper MySuper Account that is payable under an ongoing fee arrangement the Trustee will refuse to pay that fee.

e. Unless otherwise approved by the Trustee the total advice fee deduction requests permitted to be submitted within a 12 month period for a Client who is an AustralianSuper Member cannot exceed the lower of (GST inclusive):
i. $5,500; or
ii. 2.5% of the balance of the Member’s AustralianSuper Account at the time of the deduction. Where the Member has more than one AustralianSuper Account, the 2.5% cap will apply to the combined balances of the Member’s AustralianSuper Accounts.

Note: If your licensee and the Trustee have agreed to other advice fee deduction caps, those caps will apply.

AustralianSuper Product Training

7. You understand that you must complete the AustralianSuper product training and pass the associated test within two months of submitting this form to become registered.