ASIC has further extended its temporary COVID-19 relief for financial advice with the ASIC Corporations(Amendment) Instrument 2021/848. The Record of Advice (RoA) relief has been extended until 15 April 2022 to allow financial advisers to continue to provide a RoA, rather than a statement of advice (SoA), to existing clients requiring financial advice due to COVID-19. ASIC has also reintroduced the SoA relief that allows financial advisers up to 20 business days (instead of 5 business days) to give their clients an SoA after time-critical advice has been provided. This SoA relief previously expired on 15 April 2021.
The original Instrument, ASIC Corporations (COVID-19 – Advice-related Relief) Instrument 2020/355, provided 3 temporary relief measures until 15 April 2021 to facilitate retail clients receiving financial product advice in relation to COVID-19. The RoA relief was extended to until 15 October 2021 (now 15 April 2022) by the ASIC Corporations (COVID-19 – Advice-related Relief) Instrument 2021/268.
Source: ASIC media release 21-269MR, 14 October 2021
[Tax Month – October 2021 – Previous Tax Month; 17.10.21; LTN 198, 14/10/21]