ASIC has announced that in a recent surveillance project, it found 21 instances of insurance brokers and financial planners making statements about the independence of the licensee or the services they provide in breach of the Corporations Act. The relevant financial services licensees have now voluntarily complied with ASIC’s request to remove or amend the statement in each of the 21 instances.

AFS licensees are prohibited from using the terms, ‘independent’, ‘unbiased’ or ‘impartial’ if they receive commission or volume-based payments.

The licensees identified included 17 general insurance brokers, 3 financial planners and 1 life broker. In one instance, the statement was found on the website of an authorised representative.

AFS licensees must ensure that statements made by representatives in any published material comply with the relevant provisions of the Corporations Act.