Financial services representative, Barry David Hassell, of Athelstone in Adelaide, South Australia, has offered an enforceable undertaking (EU) to ASIC to permanently refrain from providing financial services. ASIC accepted the EU from Mr Hassell, 62, as part of a wider investigation into his conduct as a financial services representative.
In offering the EU, Mr Hassell has acknowledged the views held by ASIC as a result of its investigation that he:
- provided advice in circumstances where the advice was not appropriate to the client;
- did not give clients Statements of Advice (SOAs) and did not retain SOAs or records of advice as required;
- did not give clients information about his remuneration (including commission) or other benefits, interests, associations or relationships that might reasonably be expected to have been capable of influencing him in providing advice;
- did not give clients information about charges, loss of pecuniary or other benefits, or any other significant consequences of taking the recommended action, where his advice included recommendations that clients dispose of, or reduce their interest in, particular products and instead acquire, or increase their interest in, other products; and
- at times fabricated SOAs and other documents relating to the financial services he provided to clients, falsified the signatures of clients where appearing on those documents and made false or misleading statements in the documents.
Mr Hassell also undertook to notify current clients that he can no longer provide financial services and that they should refer any queries about the services provided by him to his former Australian financial services licensee, 101 Wealth Solutions Pty Ltd.
ASIC Commissioner Peter Kell said, ‘Financial advisers must provide financial services honestly and act in the best interests of clients so that consumers can have confidence and make informed financial decisions’.
ASIC’s investigation is continuing.
Background
At various times since about 31 August, 1988, Mr Hassell has carried on the business of Hassell-Free Insurance Services, either in his own capacity or as a director of BD & WJ Hassell Pty Ltd.
Since 2004, Mr Hassell has been an authorised representative at different times for Pivotal Financial Advisers Ltd, Guardian FP Ltd, AAA Shares Pty Ltd, AAA Financial Intelligence Ltd and most recently, 101 Wealth Solutions, who revoked Mr Hassell’s authorisation on 28 March 2012.