ASIC has banned Perth based financial adviser Desmond Winton Luplau from providing financial services for five years.

ASIC found that Mr Luplau’s record keeping practices were inadequate, that he failed to act in the best interests of his clients, and that he gave advice to clients which was well below community expectations.

Specifically, ASIC found that Mr Luplau had failed to:

• clearly explain what the advice was about;
• consider the clients’ relevant personal and financial circumstances, including in some instances not obtaining those relevant details;
• consider whether his clients’ existing financial products met their objectives;
• compare clients’ existing products with those he recommended;
• provide his clients with a clear and precise investment strategy; and
• give appropriate disclosure about the benefits or consequences of replacing the clients’ financial products.

Mr Luplau has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of ASIC's decision.

Mr Luplau's banning will be recorded on ASIC's Financial Advisers Register.

ASIC's MoneySmart website has useful information for clients of advisers to help them understand what to do if their adviser has been banned.

Mr Luplau was an employee representative of Westpac Banking Corporation from February 2005 to March 2010. Additionally, he was an authorised representative of Charter Financial Planning Limited, a company wholly owned by AMP Financial Planning from December 2013 to July 2016. ASIC’s surveillance focused on advice provided between 2013 and 2016.

Background

The banning of Mr Luplau is part of ASIC's Wealth Management Project. The Wealth Management Project was established in October 2014 to lift the standards of major financial advice providers. The Wealth Management Project focuses on the conduct of the largest financial advice firms (AMP, ANZ, CBA, NAB, Macquarie and Westpac).

ASIC's work in the Wealth Management Project covers a number of areas including:

• working with the largest financial advice firms to address the identification and remediation of non-compliant advice; and
• seeking regulatory outcomes, where appropriate, against licensees and advisers.

As part of its Wealth Management Project, ASIC has banned 47 advisers and one director from the financial services industry. Four adviser bannings are the subject of appeals, with a further banning stayed pending the outcome of an appeal.

Editor's note 1:

On 12 June 2018, Mr Luplau applied to the AAT for a review of ASIC's decision to ban him from providing financial services for five years.

Editor's note 2:

On 13 June 2019, Mr Luplau withdrew his appeal to the AAT for a review of ASIC’s decision to ban him from providing financial services for five years.