Financial services disclosure obligations
Under Pt 7.7 of the Corporations Act, providing entities that provide financial product advice to retail clients must prepare and provide a Financial Services Guide (FSG), give a general advice warning when giving general advice, and prepare and provide a Statement of Advice (SOA) when giving personal advice.
Under Div 2 of Pt 7.7A, advice providers providing personal advice to retail clients must comply with the ‘best interests duty’ and related obligations, which have been introduced as part of the Government’s Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reform package to improve the quality of financial advice received by retail clients.
For more information, see:
- Regulatory Guide 175 AFS licensing: Financial product advisers—Conduct and disclosure (RG 175)
- Regulatory Guide 221: Facilitating digital financial services disclosures (RG 221)
- ASIC Corporations (Financial Services Guides) Instrument 2015/541
- ASIC Corporations (General Advice Warning) Instrument 2015/540
Statement of Advice
If you give personal financial advice to retail clients you must provide a Statement of Advice (SOA). An SOA is a document that helps a retail client understand, and decide whether to rely on, personal advice.
The SOA, among other financial advice disclosure obligations, aims to ensure that your clients receive good quality advice and are able to make informed decisions.
For more information, see:
- Statement of advice
- Example Statement of advice (SOA): Limited advice (PDF)
- Regulatory Guide 90 Example Statement of Advice: Scaled advice for a new client (RG 90)
Record of Advice
Sometimes, you can rely on specific exemptions from giving a statement of advice (SOA) when providing personal advice to retail clients if you meet certain requirements. A Record of Advice (ROA) is a simple record that confirms the advice provided by an advice licensee or an adviser. The ROA is similar to an SOA but shorter and less formal.
For information about records of advice, see Information Sheet 266 FAQs: Records of Advice (ROAs) (INFO 266) which attaches example ROAs.
