The Commonwealth Bank (CAB) has announced that assessments of advice for clients of Commonwealth Financial Planning Limited (CFPL) and Financial Wisdom Limited (FWL) has been completed but that it would be another six weeks before the results of those assessments were released.
The bank started its Open Advice Review (OAR) program in July 2014 inviting any clients of the two planning groups who had received advice between 1 September 2003 and 1 July 2012 to have their advice reviewed.
Expressions of interest for the program closed in July 2015 and the CBA stated that more than 8,600 customers have had their advice assessed with the bank offering approximately $23 million in compensation to date.
The OAR program was conducted by Promontory Financial Group which informed CBA that it had completed all assessments for customers of CFPL and FWL who had requested a review of their financial advice.
Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager Advice Review program, Leif Gamertsfelder said the bank had apologised and offered compensation where a customer of CFPL or FWL had received poor advice and lost money.
“Our priority now is to work with customers who are considering their assessment outcome, or their independent customer advocate, and respond to any queries or address any concerns they have as soon as possible,” Gamertsfelder said.
Promontory have released six reports since December 2014 with the latest, from September 2016, highlighting the growth in number of cases assessed and compensation offered.
According to that sixth report only $11 million of compensation had been offered by 30 September 2016, across 6000 assessed cased compared to the $23 million highlighted in the latest announcement.
Promontory is expected to release its final report on 31 March 2017 which will provide an independent review of advice assessed through the OAR program.
