Accountant banned for three years
A GOLD Coast accountant who dished out bad advice and referred financial services work to her own company, will leave the industry for three years and be forced to contact former clients to tell them what she did.
Corporate regulator ASIC said Jenan Oslem Thorne, who has also used the names Cenan Thorne and Cenan Dikmen, had also received self-managed superannuation referrals from banned financial services business Park Trent Properties Group.
ASIC said Ms Thorne, of Saber Superannuation, had failed to act in the best interests of her clients and prioritised her own interests above theirs.
The regulator reviewed advice provided by Ms Thorne while they were investigating the Park Trent case, after that business was found to be operating unlicensed. Park Trent CEO Ronald Cross was banned from providing financial services for four years in 2016.
ASIC said it reviewed advice provided by Ms Thorne when she was a representative of SMSF Advice Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of AMP Limited, and found she had advised some clients to establish SMSFs without taking their circumstances into account.
The regulator found the accountant hadn’t properly considered her clients’ existing superannuation arrangements or explored why they were interested in investing in direct residential property through an SMSF.
When recommending SMSFs to some of her clients, she had inappropriately scoped advice by excluding insurance and retirement planning.
ASIC also found Ms Thorne did not adequately “stress-test” SMSF strategies and had recommended SMSFs to some of her clients despite inadequate evidence to suggest that the strategies would provide increased retirement benefits.
Furthermore, Ms Thorne had recommended that her accountancy practice, Saber Accountants Pty Ltd, prepare the annual accounts and tax returns for the SMSF clients. This led ASIC to determine that Ms Thorne recommended the services of a related party to create extra revenue for herself.
Ms Thorne signed an enforceable undertaking to inform all her former personal advice clients about the EU and provide contact details of her former licensee, SMSF Advice Pty Ltd. Former clients of Mrs Thorne who have inquiries or complaints regarding her advice or conduct should contact SMSF Advice Pty Ltd.
ASIC Commissioner Danielle Press said financial advisers had a legal obligation to provide advice that was in the best interests of their clients, not prioritise their own interests. “ASIC will continue to take action when advisers or AFS licensees don’t comply with the law,” she said.