The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced relief for providers of general financial product advice. The change will allow providers to give a shorter, simpler general advice warning when they provide oral general advice.

Under the Corporations Act a prescribed kind of general advice warning must be given when general
advice is provided to a retail client. This relief will allow a shorter, simpler warning than the prescribed kind to be given.

The relief is provided under ASIC Class Order [CO 05/1195] Simplified warning for oral general advice

The following are some examples of warnings that could be given under the relief:

• This advice is general, it may not be right for you;
• This advice is not tailored, so you can’t assume it will be suitable for you;
• You will need to decide whether this advice meets your needs because I haven’t.

Under the relief the simpler warning needs to be given only once in any telephone conversation or face-to-face meeting where general advice is provided to a retail client.