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FINANCIAL SERVICES GUIDE

Dated 22 Mar. 10

This Financial Services Guide (FSG) is designed to assist you in deciding whether to use any of our services and contains important information about:

  • The services we offer you
  • How we and our associates are paid
  • Any potential conflicts of interest we may have
  • What to do in the event of a complaint

 

WHO WE ARE

Established in 1980, Peter G. Clarke Consulting Pty Limited is the holder of an Australian Financial Services Licence (Number 225881) and Member of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners. The Company is 100% owned by Peter G. Clarke and existing planning staff or entities associated with them.

 

WHAT WE ARE LICENCED TO PROVIDE

We are licensed to provide financial product advice and deal in a financial product for the following classes of financial products:

  • Basic deposit products;
  • Deposit products other than basic deposit products;
  • Debentures, stocks or bonds issued or proposed to be issued by a government;
  • Life products limited to investment life insurance products a well as any products issued by a Registered Life Insurance Company that are backed by one or more of its statutory funds;
  • Interests in managed investment schemes excluding investor directed portfolio services;
  • Retirement Savings Accounts products
  • Investor Directed Portfolio Services
  • Securities; and
  • Superannuation.

 

We are responsible for the financial services provided to you, or through you to your family members, including the distribution of this FSG.

We are required to meet high standards for staff training, organisational competence, management expertise, financial control and compliance disciplines.

 

WHO DO WE ACT FOR

We act on your behalf and in your interests in all matters.

 

OUR SERVICES

We offer a comprehensive financial planning service based on a range of managed investment products.  This service may be personal advice, general advice or a combination thereof.  We specialise in:

  • A full range of Investment Planning strategies extending from Savings Plans (Conservative) to Geared Investment Portfolios (Aggressive);
  • Retirement and Superannuation Planning (Tax Effective);
  • Estate Planning including Wills, Power of Attorney and the use of Testamentary Trusts; and
  • Contingency Planning

 

RETAIL CLIENTS

Under the Corporations Act 2001 (The Act) Retail Clients are provided with additional protection from other clients. The Act defines Retail Clients as Individuals or a manufacturing business employing less than 100 people or any other business employing less than 20 people.

Some of the information in this FSG only applies to Retail Clients and it is important that you understand if you are covered by the additional protection provided.

 

RETAIL CLIENT ISSUES

If you are a new Retail Client you should be aware that you are entitled to receive a Statement of Advice (previously known as a Financial Plan) whenever we provide you with any advice which takes into account your objectives, financial situation and needs.  This document will contain the advice, the basis on which it is given and information about fees, commissions and associations that may have influenced the provision of the advice.

 

Should we provide you with subsequent advice you may receive a Record of Advice.  You may request copies of these documents at any time.

For existing Retail Clients we may not provide an SOA but rather provide the advice to you orally. In such cases you may request us to provide you with a Record of Advice (via phone or in writing) which we will provide to you within 28 days of such request.

 

Sometimes we may only provide General Advice to some Retail Clients. General Advice does not take into account your particular needs and requirements and you should consider the appropriateness of this advice to your circumstances prior to acting upon it. We will provide you with a General Advice Warning in such cases.

 

If we recommend the purchase of a particular financial product, we will also give you a Product Disclosure Statement at that time, which sets out details specific to that product and the key benefits and risks in purchasing the product.

 

WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU

To enable us to provide the right advice we need you to provide us with complete information about your personal circumstances, including your assets and liabilities. You should also advise us of any relevant changes as they occur so that we can review your needs accordingly. Should you elect not to provide the personal information we request it may at best result in only a limited Statement of Advice being prepared and in some cases in us being unable to prepare a Statement of Advice for you.

 

PERSONAL INFORMATION

The Federal Privacy Act 2000 sets out standards for the collection and management of personal information. With your consent, we will only use your personal information for general insurance services. (A copy of our privacy policy can be found at www.petergclarke.com or we will provide you with a copy if you request). If you wish to access your file please ask us.

 

YOUR ADVISER

Each of the advisory staff is a Representative of the Company (Licensee) and the company is a member of the AIOFP (Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners). In order to maintain our standards they have all completed the Diploma of Financial Planning along with other relevant ongoing studies.  All clients become clients of the company, not clients of just one Adviser. 

 

Your Adviser will be acting on behalf of Peter G. Clarke Consulting Pty Limited, the Licensee.  Peter G. Clarke Consulting Pty Limited is therefore responsible to you for any advice that is provided.

 

Should you elect to become a client you may instruct us at any time in writing to act in relation to your investments. If preferred these instructions may be delivered by fax or email.

 

FEES

Peter G. Clarke Consulting Pty Ltd is a fee-based company.  A Fee of up to $5,500 may be levied for preparing a Statement of Advice.  A limited Statement of Advice will attract a minimum fee of $550. From time to time we may also do limited consulting advice for clients. This can incur an hourly rate of up to $275 per hour.

 

We reserve the right to charge an initial one-off Entry Fee of up to 3.5% (including GST) on funds to be invested.  For example if you invested $100,000, we may charge a maximum entry fee of $3,500. All entitlements to front-end brokerage or commission are rebated to the client in the form of additional units in the recommended investment.

 

If clients then elect to join the Managed Portfolio Service an additional ongoing fee of up to 1.65% pa (including GST) is paid quarterly for the management of the portfolio. Ongoing or trail brokerage will also be rebated wherever possible, this rebating will only occur where permitted by the relevant Fund Manager.

As an alternative to asset based fees we may agree with you to work on an hourly rate basis.  Our current hourly rate is $275 per hour.

 

Where the Fund Managers will not rebate the trail brokerage or where you elect not to join the Managed Portfolio Service the licensee will retain the trail brokerage. The exact costs of this will be clearly outlined in your Statement of Advice but average around 0.375% per annum of the amount invested. For example if you had $100,000 invested the trail brokerage would be $375 per annum.

 

One organization we may recommend to you to place funds is Wealthtrac.  Because of the volume of business Peter G. Clarke Consulting has with Wealthtrac a volume bonus is paid to us.  This bonus is 15% of the fee you pay to Wealthtrac.  This is paid by Wealthtrac and is not an additional fee paid by you and as such Wealthtrac will not rebate this amount to you.  Where you have more than $500,000 with us we will rebate this amount to you annually in arrears.  For clients with less than $500,000 we will retain this amount and an estimate of the amount will be provided in your Statement of Advice.  Should our receipt of this volume bonus be a concern to you we undertake to consider and recommend an alternative product where this issue does not exist.

Peter G. Clarke Consulting maintains a publicly available Alternative Remuneration Register.  Making a request to an adviser of Peter G. Clarke Consulting can access this for anyone who wishes to view it.

 

HOW OUR REPRESENTATIVES ARE PAID

Peter Clarke, along with existing advisory staff or interests associated with them own the company. We have no ties to any insurance company, financial institution, fund manager or other organization or person that could or may influence the advice we give you. All employees of Peter G. Clarke Consulting are paid a salary and may receive a bonus on an annual basis relative to the performance of the company.  Shareholders of the company may receive a dividend, again based on the financial performance of the company.

 

All of our fees as described above and any fees payable to investment managers or other service providers recommended by us will be fully disclosed (in both percentage and dollar terms) in the written Statement of Advice we provide to you at the time of the recommendation.

 

COMPENSATION

We hold a Professional Indemnity Policy. This policy is designed to pay claims by Third Parties (including our clients) arising out of our Professional Negligence. The policy extends to covers us for work done for us by representatives/employees after they cease to work for us and satisfies the requirements for compensation arrangements under Section 912B of The Act.

 

CONTACT AGREEMENT

To ensure that we provide you with appropriate products and services, you agree to us calling you to discuss any new products and services. If you do not wish to receive such calls please advise us and we will place you on our Do Not Call Register.

 

COMPLAINTS RESOLUTION

Should the situation arise whereby you feel you have due grounds for a complaint based on our advice we recommend the following procedure be undertaken to resolve your complaint.

 

  1. Contact Andrew McNicol, on 9525-9227 to arrange an appointment to discuss your complaint. You may also at this time request a copy of our Complaint Handling Policy.
  2. It may be necessary to make an official complaint in writing detailing the particulars of your complaint. This should be forwarded to our office to the attention of Craig Carter, Managing Director.
  3. All complaints should be able to be dealt with in-house. Our procedure complies with the Australian Standard AS4269-1995. If you do not get a satisfactory outcome you can contact ASIC on the free call info line 1300 780 885 to find out which industry complaints scheme may be available to assist you.  We are members of the FOS Scheme listed below.
  4. If the complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, within 45 days, we must refer you to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).   This service is provided to you free of charge and involves the following steps:
  • Stage 1 is where FOS facilitates discussions and negotiations between the parties.  All relevant documents are exchanged and the issues in dispute are identified.
  • Stage 2 is formal conciliation where the parties come together before a conciliator appointed by FOS.  The role of the conciliator is to assist the parties explore the options for settlement and help the parties agree on their own outcome.
  • Stage 3 is where an independent adjudicator is requested to make a decision on the papers having regard to the relevant law, fairness and reasonableness.  If you accept the adjudicator’s decision it is binding on us.
  1. They can be contacted at,

 

PO Box 3

Melbourne VIC 3001

Phone:1300 78 08 08 (Toll Free)

www.fos.org.au

 

 

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

As a business we have relationships with and may receive income from various third parties as detailed in this FSG. For Retail Clients receiving Personal Advice, details of relationships that impact the advice will be included in any SOA or invoice documentation we send you. All material conflicts that impact our advice, that are not mentioned in this FSG, will be advised to you on the invoices related to that advice.

 

SUMMARY

The hardest step in financial planning is finding a financial advisor whom you trust to manage your investments. Our company has been providing financial planning services to our clients since 1980.

 

We understand that Financial Planning for the present and the future can be a daunting task. Financial Planning is not just a matter of gathering all your available funds and putting them all into one investment basket and hoping that your funds can withstand the ravages of inflation and taxation along with any inherent volatility. It is important to determine your tolerance to risk, your investment time frame and your goals within this time frame. We are available at any time be able to explain the significant risks of any strategies or products we recommend to you.  If at anytime you require further explanation on the risks involved please contact us.

 

There are many aspects to Financial Planning, all of which require a disciplined approach. We will analyse your current situation and make recommendations where we feel appropriate. Our role is to maintain a perspective on what is going on in the market place and invest your money with reputable managers with a proven track record over the long term. We gain satisfaction in knowing that your plan is working to its full potential and you are achieving your goals.

 

In providing advice to you our main source of research is generated internally and is complemented by a range of independent external research organisations. We may also employ software based financial planning tools to assist us with certain aspects of your Statement of Advice.

 

Our focus is on building long-term relationships with our clients by ensuring a high degree of personal client service and education.