Financial advisers thinking of setting up shop under their own licence will be forced to pay higher licensing fees from 1 July next year, under new proposals released as part of the industry funding model for ASIC.
While advisers currently pay between $400 and $1,650 for a Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) application, those numbers will climb to a maximum of $5,025 for an individual adviser, and to $7,537 for a body corporate, if submitted electronically, from the middle of next year.
Advisers choosing to submit an AFSL application on paper will pay up to $7,537 for an individual adviser, and up to $11,305 for a body corporate.
The numbers were released by The Treasury as part of a consultation paper – Introduction of ASIC’s Fees for Service Under the Industry Funding Model – and form part of the second phase of the model which will recover regulatory costs that are directly attributable to a single, identifiable, entity.
The paper stated that AFSL applications had been divided into eight different categories (four for retail and four for wholesale) and were further divided into individual low and high complexity applications and body corporate low and high complexity applications.
“The current fees for these activities do not reflect their actual cost…”
The level of complexity of an AFSL application would be based on client type and the services and products selected when applying, and the total application cost would be based on the weighted average staff cost for ASIC’s licencing team multiplied by the average time spent by the team to process the application.
Applications to vary the conditions of an AFSL would also climb from around $300 to a maximum of $3,071 for an individual adviser and to $3,210 for a body corporate if submitted electronically, while paper applications would be charged at $4,606 and $4,815, respectively.
Advisers choosing to voluntarily suspend or revoke their licence would also face a much higher fee which will climb from $39 at present to $899, from 1 July 2018.
ASIC welcomed the paper, stating the proposals would recover the 10 per cent of costs not currently included as part of the Government’s industry funding arrangements.
ASIC Commissioner, John Price said, “The current fees for these activities do not reflect their actual cost and the Government is seeking input from industry on changes to address this.”
Industry stakeholders have until 15 December to make comments on the consultation paper which is available from the Treasury website.
Now let me see How does a union work again???
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