Exposure draft life insurance regulations were released yesterday They are a marked departure from the existing conflicted remuneration provisions Now a benefit can only be conflicted remuneration if it could reasonably be expected to influence financial product advice These regulations will create ...

Commercial trusts could not operate without limitation of liability clauses however getting a limitation of liability clause just right is very challenging ...

The new Life Insurance Code of Practice has much to recommend it The paragraphs concerning policy design are a case in point But is the Code indeed just a code or does it purport to go further ...

The Bill to amend the conflicted remuneration provisions in the Corporations Act for life insurance has been introduced into Parliament a second time and draft regulations have been released for comment However we struggle to know how to describe them because the changes seem to have conflicting ...

Class action risk is changing A new wave of entrepreneurialism by plaintiff lawyers and litigation funders has substantially changed class action dynamics in recent times The 25th anniversary of the class action regime is a good opportunity to reflect on whether in the light of those and other ...

The recent case of ASIC v NSG Services Pty Ltd considers the FoFA best interests and appropriate advice provisions, as well as obligations of licensees. While the facts of the case provide an extreme example of how advisers and licensees can fail to comply with these duties, it also provides some us ...

The Taskforce established by Treasury to consider ASICs enforcement powers released its first consultation paper a few weeks ago on breach reporting We examine the most significant of the Taskforces 12 preliminary positions ...

Today the Full Federal Court clarified the law of penalties as it applies to fees The key development is that in considering whether the amount of a fee is extravagant and exorbitant compared to the potential costs incurred in dealing with a failure to perform an obligation the court held that ...

In 2014 ASIC started promoting the use of behavioural economics in its regulatory activities Two reports recently released by ASIC provide clues as to how ASIC may try to counteract behavioural biases in the future ...

A recent Victorian Supreme Court decision has resolved a disputed construction of a major shareholder exclusion in a DO policy in the insurers favour after considering the broad commercial purpose of these provisions Partner Andrew Maher and Law Graduate Shelley Drenth report ...