ASIC is reminding Australian financial services (AFS) licensees who have not yet updated the Financial Advisers Register (Register) that they need to add new details about their financial advisers by 1 January 2020.

The Register was updated by ASIC last month to collect the new information required by the recent professional standards reforms for financial advisers.

AFS licensees must provide the additional information about their advisers via the ASIC Connect portal by 1 January 2020.

More details are available at Timeline for the reforms and Information on the Financial Advisers Register. For further assistance, visit ASIC’s Contact Us page.

AFS licensees should note that ASIC offices are closed between Christmas eve and the end of the year. We encourage all AFS licensees to do their reporting as soon as possible in case ASIC assistance is required.

Background

Professional standards for financial advisers were introduced to the Corporations Act 2001 in March 2017 to raise the education, training and ethical standards of people providing personal advice to retail clients on more complex financial products.

The new requirements are being implemented progressively from 1 January 2019. AFS licensees are required to provide new information for the Register multiple times throughout the transition period.