The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled the Australian financial services licence (AFSL) of Gold Coast-based financial advice business MyPlanner Professional Services (MPS) after it entered into voluntary liquidation.
ASIC stated the advice business had held its licence since September 2012 and the cancellation took effect on 23 June 2020 in accordance with the the Corporations Act 2001, which allows the corporate regulator to cancel an AFSL if the licensee ceases its financial services business.
MPS lodged documents with ASIC on 12 June to voluntarily liquidate the business after it decided not to continue an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to have a 10-week suspension placed on its AFSL.
In February, ASIC suspended MPS’s licence, stating it failed to adequately monitor and supervise its authorised representatives and had inadequate resources to carry out those supervisory arrangements.
The suspension was placed on hold pending an appeal of ASIC’s decision by MPS before the AAT, which was granted on 15 April, but MPS could not take on new clients and had to inform existing clients, advisers and staff of the suspension.
That action followed the imposition of additional conditions on MPS’s licence in late 2017 after ASIC applied the same measures to another licensee, MyPlanner Australia Pty Ltd (MPA), after it found MPA was giving poor financial advice and lacked adequate monitoring and supervision of its advice representatives.
ASIC stated the conditions were also applied to MPS as a large number of advisers and staff had moved to it from MPA following a sale of the advice business from MPA to MPS.
MPS is a different AFSL holder than MPA, however, the latter sold its advice business to MPS in mid-2019. MPA was placed into external administration in November 2019 and its licence was cancelled on 17 March 2020.
