Jason Spits

riskinfo.com.au — September 18, 2018 Most major life insurers did not have formal and regular processes to review medical definitions until at least 2016 with four insurers only introducing the processes last year, according to evidence presented to the Banking Royal Commission.

riskinfo.com.au — September 18, 2018 The Deputy Chair of ASIC, Peter Kell, has announced his resignation from the regulator six months after the Federal Government extended his appointment for another year. Kell's departure from ASIC will be his second from the regulator where he was Executive Director of Consumer Protection and New South Wales Regional Commissioner from 1998 to 2004.

riskinfo.com.au — September 18, 2018 The head of financial advice at NAB, Andrew Hagger will leave the bank after 10 years following a restructure of its senior executive team. Hagger was most recently Chief Customer Officer - Consumer and Wealth and was responsible for retail banking, direct banking and bank-based financial advice.

riskinfo.com.au — September 17, 2018 AMP has told the Banking Royal Commission that it deducted life insurance premiums from the superannuation accounts of people who have died, even when notified of the person's death, and repaid the premiums from the death benefit.

riskinfo.com.au — September 17, 2018 ASIC has commenced court action against Dover Financial Advisers and its sole director, Terry McMaster alleging they misled and deceived clients. The corporate regulator announced today that on 12 September it had commenced civil penalty action in the Federal Court of Australia over Dover's use of its Client Protection Policy (CPP) which was in place from September 2015 to March 2018.

riskinfo.com.au — September 10, 2018 ClearView Life has admitted to more than 300,000 breaches of anti-hawking provisions related to the sale of direct life insurance by the company. The admission was made by ClearView Chief Actuary and Risk Officer, Greg Martin who appeared at the first day of hearings which are examining practices within the life insurance sector.

riskinfo.com.au — September 10, 2018 Financial advice related to life insurance will not be examined during the current round of hearings of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.

riskinfo.com.au — September 4, 2018 The Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has confirmed there will not be a designated minister to oversee the financial services sector but that Assistant Treasurer, Stuart Robert, would oversee the area as part of his duties.

riskinfo.com.au — August 30, 2018 ASIC has expressed concerns over the high cancellation rates of direct life insurance, as well as the lower levels of accepted claims, prompting it to move to end outbound sales calls and pressure selling by insurers.

riskinfo.com.au — August 22, 2018 AMP has appointed long serving Credit Suisse executive, Francesco De Ferrari, as its new Chief Executive Officer. He will join AMP after 17 years with Credit Suisse where he was, most recently, the Chief Executive South East Asia and Frontier Markets, and Head of Private Banking Asia "Pacific.

riskinfo.com.au — August 21, 2018 The number of Australian-owned major life insurance companies will fall to three at the conclusion of the current round of acquisitions, with their collective market share totalling around 20 per cent by March 2019.

riskinfo.com.au — August 14, 2018 More than one million life insurance policies had the potential to switch providers in the past financial year but a recommendation from an adviser was the key driver in only six per cent of switches, according to research released by Roy Morgan.

riskinfo.com.au — August 9, 2018 AMP has flagged that it may consider the sale of its life insurance business in Australia as part of an ongoing wider strategic review of the group's business.

riskinfo.com.au — August 7, 2018 ASIC has received a boost to its enforcement capabilities with the Federal Government announcing it would fund the placement of embedded staff within major institutions to monitor governance and compliance actions.

riskinfo.com.au — August 7, 2018 ASIC has indicated it expected remediation related to the charging of fees for no service (FFNS) to pass $850 million.

riskinfo.com.au — Non-aligned financial advice group Dover Financial Advisers has told its advisers their authority to act as authorized representatives had been withdrawn immediately and the group would cancel its licence in one month.

magazine.riskinfo.com.au — The changes to commission under the new Life Insurance Framework have been well publicised but information released to advisers by insurers in the lead up to 1 January 2018 indicate that important variations exist in a number of key areas. In this article, Riskinfo Senior Journalist, Jason Spits, pulls together the numbers in those key areas to provide a basic ready reckoner of what remuneration advisers can expect to receive from life insurers in 2018.

riskinfo.com.au — ASIC has accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from the first adviser picked up under its Life Insurance Lapse Data Project, after finding he failed to meet his obligations in providing life insurance replacement advice.

magazine.riskinfo.com.au — The current Parliamentary Joint Committee Inquiry into Life Insurance will release its report in the middle of this year but the direction of that report may have already been flagged during recent public hearings held in the last month. While the Life Insurance Framework received little attention a number of key related issues were frequently raised including commissions, churn and clawback. In this article, Riskinfo Senior Journalist, Jason Spits takes a look at the questions asked, the areas covered and what this may mean for advisers

Money Management (Australia) — After a few rugged years for financial planners the sector has hit a period of relative stabilty with planner numbers holding steady with Jason Spits reporting that both aligned and non-aligned groups are reporting milder changes in their numbers than those seen in the past.

Money Management (Australia) — AMP and the big four control even less of the wider market than first revealed by Money Management and far short of the 80 per cent ownership figure often spoken about in mainstream media, Jason Spits writes.