Aussie advisers banned for Zurich insurance commission scam

In a bid to maximise upfront commission, two Australian financial advisers have been banned from providing financial services for life for falsifying insurance applications on behalf of unsuspecting clients.

Two Malta trust directors banned for a year

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The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) permanently banned Matthew Wallis and Rochelle Manoharan after discovering they had submitted insurance applications to Zurich Australia that were not requested by the clients.

The applications were made without the clients’ knowledge and contained false information.

Upfront commission

Wallis and Manoharan were directors of Found Financial Services, which was formerly a corporate-authorised representative of ANZ Banking Group subsidiary RI Advice Group.

The pair falsified insurance applications to maximise the amount of upfront commission received by Found Financial.

The false applications were for life insurance, total and permanent disability (TPD) insurance, trauma and income protection insurance.

Found Financial paid the monthly premiums for a short period of time to give the appearance that the policies were genuine.

In each case the policies lapsed because of non-payment.

Peter Kell, acting Asic chair, said: “People working in the financial services industry must be trusted to act with integrity. If they engage in dishonest conduct, Asic will remove them from the industry.”

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