Royal Commission case study sparks ASIC court action against John Doyle and RI Advice
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) has started Federal Court action against New South Wales-based RI Advice Group and former financial adviser John Doyle.
The conduct of both RI Advice and Doyle was examined as a case study on “bad advice” as part of the Financial Services Royal Commission.
Asic has alleged that the firm failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that Doyle provided appropriate advice, acted in clients’ best interests and put his clients’ interests ahead of his own.
The Aussie regulator is also taking action against Doyle, who was an authorised representative of RI Advice between May 2013 and June 2016.
It alleges that he gave inappropriate “cookie cutter” advice to retail clients to invest in structured “complex” financial products called Macquarie Flexi 100 Trust and Instreet Masti 36 and 38, “without taking into account their financial goals or risk tolerance”.