ob体育 has accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from Michael Melamed, a former authorised representative of Synchronised Business Service Pty Ltd .
The EU follows an ob体育 review of the advice provided by Mr Melamed as part of ob体育's review of life insurance advice.
ob体育 has concerns that Mr Melamed鈥檚 advice about life insurance during the period March 2013 to聽 January 2015 did not meet the standards required of a financial adviser and that he had failed to comply with financial services laws.
In particular, ob体育 has concerns that Mr Melamed:
- failed to maintain聽accurate records relating to the provision of financial product advice;
- failed to make reasonable聽inquiries or otherwise into his clients' relevant objectives, financial situation and needs;
- failed to conduct a needs聽analysis to determine if the amount of insurance cover sought was in his聽clients'聽 best interests;
- recommended insurance聽cover where clients were unable to afford insurance premiums; and
- failed to demonstrate the聽ability, professional skills and knowledge required to competently provide聽financial services.聽聽
Mr Melamed acknowledges that ob体育's concerns about his advice are reasonably held.
Under the EU, Mr Melamed undertakes that he will not provide financial services on behalf of himself or any other person, for a period of three years. Should Mr Melamed seek re-entry to the financial services industry after the three year period, he must notify ob体育 and first undergo prescribed additional training in the provision of financial product advice.
Mr Melamed's exclusion from the financial services industry will be noted in the
Background
Other outcomes following ob体育鈥檚 review of life insurance advice (see ) include:
- in January 2016, Jason聽Churchill entered into an Enforceable Undertaking with ob体育 based on matters identified in the course of an ob体育 surveillance including a聽review of the client files of Mr Churchill (refer: )
- in September 2015, ob体育聽banned life insurance financial adviser and former authorised聽representative Lukas Zelka, of Neo Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, from聽providing financial services for three years (refer: )听听听
- in July 2015, ob体育 banned聽life insurance financial adviser Brian Farber from providing financial聽services for four years (refer: ),听补苍诲
- in January 2015, ob体育聽imposed conditions on the AFS licence of Suncorp-owned Guardian Advice聽(refer: ).