ASIC has banned a life insurance financial adviser from providing financial services for three years.
ASIC’s action against Lukas Zelka, a former life insurance adviser from Neo Financial Solutions, is part of ongoing investigations and regulatory action following a review of the life insurance advice sector.
The regulator’s investigation into Zelka found his advice relating to the replacement of personal insurances did not meet the standards expected of a financial adviser and that he had failed to comply with financial services laws.
“ASIC is focused on weeding out advisers who fail to meet industry and community expectations. We want to ensure that consumers seeking life insurance can be confident that their adviser will provide appropriate advice,” ASIC deputy chairman
Peter Kell said.
ASIC is now urging all clients who have concerns about the advice they received from Zelka to contact the financial services licensee under which he gave the advice.
Zelka has the right to appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
In October last year, ASIC
warned those providing life insurance advice – including mortgage brokers – to improve the quality of advice and ensure that the interests of consumers are given priority after it found that more than a third (37%) of the advice consumers received failed to comply with regulation governing a consumer’s best interest.
