Practice uncovered following CBA revelations
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission detailed concerns about NAB and various group entities over advisers charging adviser service fees without ongoing service being provided.
“ASIC is concerned by NAB and its group licensees’ apparent failure to appreciate the extent and seriousness of this issue despite being on notice since at least 2010,” it said.
ASIC noted NAB had 40 complaints dating back to 2011 about ongoing service fees and poor service that were resolved in favour of the customer, with $155,000 paid.
One complaint said an ongoing service fee had been charged on the account for 15 years without ongoing service being provided.
NAB’s superannuation trustee NULIS is already paying more than $100 million in compensation to super customers wrongly charged a fee for general advice services.
Recently-departed NULIS chair Nicole Smith said the issues included adviser service fees continuing to be deducted from a member’s account after NULIS or another trustee had been advised of their death.
That occurred “for a period” or until the retirement benefit had been paid out, Ms Smith said. It is understood more 4,100 super members may have been affected, involving fees totalling $3.01 million. Ms Smith yesterday said the issue was identified in May, with regulators notified in June.
It followed internal investigations into whether NULIS was deducting fees from people who had died in the wake of royal commission revelations involving Australia’s largest bank. The May financial advice hearing revealed some advisers at Commonwealth Bank subsidiary Count Financial continued charging clients fees after they died, in one case for more than a decade. Close Change
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