Advisers with convictions registered
It has been revealed that two insurance advisers were accepted onto the financial services register seven months after receiving court convictions in Australia.
Tuesday, September 6th 2011, 7:19AM 13 Comments
The Bay of Plenty-based advisers work for American Income Life Insurance (AIL) which "is striving to become the premier in-home life insurance sales company" in the countries it operates in.
Much of the insurance is sold through labour unions, credit unions and associations, the company says on its website.
Two of its advisers, Tone and Denis Munro, were able to register in the FSPR in New Zealand nine months after being convicted in Queensland for misleading consumers over their investment properties.
They were fined A$100,000 in the Mackay Magistrate Court.
Tone Susann Munro, 60, was convicted and fined A$60,000 and Dennis Leslie Munro, 58, was convicted and fined A$40,000 last November.
The pair sold house and land packages to investors in Mackay in 2007 and 2008, targeting residents through a display stand at a local shopping centre.
The court heard the duo deliberately misled potential buyers to make sales, including telling investors that pools and air-conditioning units were included in their building contracts when they weren't.
The Munros also falsely claimed they were licensed with the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Real estate agent licences are issued by the Office of Fair Trading.
According to NBR the Munros are some of the top producers at AIL.
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Comments from our readers
Yee-Ha!
I suspect they got away with it here because they were AU convictions. Hopefully they will get prosecuted for false declaration so as to set an example.
I was lead to believe that part of the initial upfront cost of advisers registering on the FSPR included a police check been done on ALL applicants regardless of them been AFA or RFA?
the FMA—(i) is not aware, after making any inquiries that it considers appropriate, that the Adviser has been convicted by a court in New Zealand or elsewhere of an offence punishable by imprisonment for a term of 6 months or more; or (ii) if the FMA is so aware, is satisfied that the commission of the offence does not reflect adversely on the Adviser’s fitness to act as an authorised financial adviser.
It appears RFAs fall outside Section 54, which is interesting and not the standard that is acceptable. Agreed.
I would have thought criminal checks for all categories of adviser would have been mandatory especially if we are trying to raise the bar and re-gain investor confidence.
As for the crowd they work for, that’s typical AIL really. Try googling “American Income Life Scam” and see the results!! They appear to be a legit (as in proper/real/legal etc) company though: they are a real insurance company selling real policies, but everything about them smells funny, from the constant recruitment drives promoting "…one of the most lucrative Agent compensation programs in the industry" (source http://www.ailcareers.com/american_income_life_insurance_company_careers.aspx) to the promotion of products which for the most part simply duplicate what our ACC scheme already provides, to employing sales-hungry commission-focused types who can be churned and burned then replaced by the next wave of recruits.
If one was to do the ‘Google reference check’ on the term “Dennis Leslie Munro” the first three results are about this couple being convicted and fined. It made the Sydney Morning Herald: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nz-couple-fined-100000-over-property-lie-20101111-17odw.html
But AIL were “happy with that”?
Typical.
I was billed for a criminal check when i did my RFA registration, I damn well hope they actually did one.
On top of that, it is now obvious that the legislation is still only the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff rather than the fence at the top. It also means that there is now a strong likelihood that the legislation will be tightened further at more cost to us, all because of the ignorance or dishonesty of a very few.
When will the stupidity end and common sense prevail?
When will the FMA focus on what THE CLIENT REALLY WANTS?
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