Lesley Thorne

Advisers have until 12 March 2014 to ensure their privacy compliance measures meet new privacy principles.

“The new Australian Privacy Principles require personal information to be handled in an open and transparent way,” says Lesley Thorne, senior lawyer from The Fold Legal. “This means financial advisers must be revisiting and updating their privacy compliance measures over the next three weeks.”

In particular, Ms Thorne says the information given to clients about how their information is to be used should be reviewed and the extra information required for data collection statements should be added when collecting information, be it face-to-face or by telephone.

“Privacy policies should also be updated and placed on advisers’ websites,” she says. “Care needs to taken with direct marketing and advisers must make sure they have a really simple way for people to unsubscribe or opt out of any communications.”

If any personal information is disclosed overseas, the recipient must be required to protect that information in a similar way to the Australian requirements. “If not, advisers should stop sending information overseas until they can put controls in place over how their client data is used, disclosed and stored,” she says.

Ms Thorne has the following tips for advisers in the lead up to the 12 March deadline.

Tips for advisers:

• Implement new procedures to ensure you handle personal information correctly and give access when required by law.
• Correct personal information which is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, misleading or irrelevant when requested.
• Check that security and storage processes for personal information are sufficient.
• Expand internal complaints resolution arrangements to include complaints about privacy.

“Advisers need to thoroughly train their staff on their obligations and also the privacy policy and procedures they have put in place to manage the obligations. They need to monitor and record any mishaps and ensure adjustments can be made quickly where necessary.”

The Fold has new privacy policies, privacy scripts and documented policies and procedures advisers need as a starting point in The Fold’s manuals. For more information, click here.

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AFA has success in building links legal and accounting professions.

A sell-out Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Christmas event in South Australia is proof the AFA is building strong collegial links with both the legal and accounting professions.

AFA State Director of South Australia, Dave Slovinec said the AFA issued set numbers of tickets to both the Young Lawyers: The Law Society of South Australia and the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and both allocations were sold out well ahead of the event which was held last Friday, 29 November in Adelaide.

“We had to move venues this year in order to accommodate a total of 350 professionals,” Mr Slovinec said. “This is a great endorsement of the initiatives the AFA is taking to encourage strong relationships between complementary professions.”

Many AFA members have already established very strong, long-standing relationships with other professionals as a result of the events.

“We believe each profession has expertise that is necessary for a seamless and successful advice process. In order to deliver great advice to more Australians, we believe it is important that as professionals, we all support each other and recognize the valuable role each of us plays,” Mr Slovinec said.

The SA Christmas event was supported by a number of corporate sponsors and all profits from the event will be donated to the South Australian charity Little Heroes Foundation.

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Her appointment is part of the recent strengthening of Tyndall AM’s in-house legal and compliance capabilities, and follows the appointment of James Wincott as head of risk & compliance in September.

Mr Davis said that Ms Do’s legal experience within the financial industry, particularly at ASIC, was very attractive to Tyndall AM.

“As the legal and compliance requirements for all participants in the financial services industry become increasingly stringent, we have been making a big investment to further build on the expertise and skills of our in-house team, to ensure we remain on top of, if not ahead of, those requirements.

“Kristy is a highly qualified and experienced legal professional who brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our existing high quality team,” Mr Davis said.

Ms Do has 14 years’ legal experience, with 10 years within the financial services industry. She was most recently with Mirvac Group where she was company secretary.

Prior to this, she was with ANZ Wealth as senior lawyer, and has also worked at ASIC as manager – large entities, financial services compliance division, which involved managing the relationships with large institutions licensed by ASIC, and as a senior lawyer within the Enforcement Directorate of ASIC.

Ms Do has also worked as a solicitor for Collins Biggers & Paisley and Goldsmiths Lawyers. She holds a bachelor of laws and bachelor of science from University of Sydney and is a member of the Law Society of New South Wales.

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