The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) published its August 2025 Financial advice update, highlighting a now-live one-off dataset to help Australian financial services (AFS) licensees identify and correct information on the Financial Advisers Register, alongside reminders on relevant provider registration and other compliance themes. The update also summarises ASIC’s recent financial advice enforcement activity, provides an update on Financial Services and Credit Panel (FSCP) outcomes, and reports findings from a market scan of professional indemnity (PI) insurance for advice licensees. AFS licensees are expected to ensure Financial Advisers Register information is correct for the relevant providers they authorise and to notify ASIC of changes within 30 business days to avoid late fees, with ASIC noting it is an offence to knowingly provide false or misleading information or fail to take reasonable steps to ensure information is true and correct. ASIC’s spot checks identified recurring issues including advisers being incorrectly recorded as relying on the experienced provider pathway, qualifications/training being listed where courses were not completed or not approved, and missing or incorrect information about an adviser’s capacity to provide tax (financial) advice. On registration, ASIC reported issuing 12 warnings and reprimands to relevant providers who gave personal advice to retail clients while unregistered, and outlined common scenarios where licensees fail to register providers; the enforcement roundup includes infringement notices of AUD 31,300 for several licensees linked to unregistered advice and a Federal Court penalty of AUD 11,030,000 for conflicted remuneration and inappropriate advice, alongside multiple banning and licence cancellation actions and proceedings against Fortnum Private Wealth Limited alleging inadequate cybersecurity risk management. ASIC’s PI insurance market scan (November 2024 to February 2025) found improved market conditions but flagged concerns including limited transparency on cover and claims and delays in claim finalisation, with ASIC considering how these issues may be addressed. From 15 August 2025, ASIC’s updated dataset will add whether an AFS licensee has notified ASIC that a relevant provider declared reliance on the experienced provider pathway and the date the provider passed the exam. The update also flags the 1 January 2026 deadline for existing providers to meet qualifications standards and the education and training requirements to provide tax (financial) advice services to retail clients.

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