Financial advisers who leave large licensees for the perceived regulatory sanctuary of an own-AFSL arrangement or a smaller licensee might be disturbed to realise that the regulator’s message to them is that they can run, but they can’t hide.

Recently appointed ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland will tell the 2024 iteration of the Professional Planner Licensee Summit, being held in the NSW Blue Mountains on 18 to 19 June, that the regulator is not focused solely on the larger end of town, and there’s more to ASIC’s monitoring and surveillance than suggested by the cases that make the headlines.

Kirkland will argue that the regulator has a range of tools available to it to supervise and regulate licensees and their advisers, ranging from court actions at one end of the spectrum to banning, licence cancellation and director disqualifications at the other.