Following a review of fee disclosure practices, ASIC today released a class order clarifying key fee and cost disclosure requirements for Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) and periodic statements for superannuation and managed investment products.
The class order, which ASIC consulted on in September 2014 (refer: 14-249MR), addresses:
- Disclosure of costs of investing in interposed vehicles
- Disclosure of indirect costs
- Removal of doubt that double counting of some costs for superannuation products is not required, and
- The appropriate application of the consumer advisory warning.
The class order will apply to all PDS for superannuation and managed investment products from 1 January 2016. It will also apply to periodic statements that must be given for these products by 1 January 2017 or later.
Commissioner Greg Tanzer said, ‘For consumers to make effective decisions about their investments and superannuation they need information they can trust and that allows them to compare across products. These changes will help industry to improve the quality of their disclosure and promote consistency between products.
‘Consumers can have more confidence that industry is disclosing fees and costs more accurately and in the same manner, ensuring comparisons between products are made on the same basis.’
Consultation on Regulatory Guide 97
As indicated in Report 398 Fee and cost disclosure: Superannuation and managed investment products (REP 398) we have also commenced our review of Regulatory Guide 97 Disclosing fees and costs in PDSs and periodic statements (RG 97) to reflect the effect of the Stronger Super reforms and this class order. The draft RG 97 has been provided to a number of industry associations and other industry participants for consideration and we welcome industry feedback on our proposed amendments. Submissions on the proposed revisions to the RG (please see below for a link to the RG 97) can be made by email to feeandcostdisclosure@asic.gov.au by Friday 27 February 2015.
Anyone wanting to receive more background information on the revisions to RG 97 may also email feeandcostdisclosure@asic.gov.au
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