Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services

This is the Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services prepared in accordance with Part 4 of Schedule 5 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (the FMC Act). The Code supports the purposes of the FMC Act including promoting the confident and informed participation of businesses, investors, and consumers in the financial markets, avoiding unnecessary compliance costs, and ensuring the availability and quality of financial advice.

The Code is part of a wider regulatory regime for financial advice. Subpart 5A of Part 6 of the FMC Act imposes statutory duties on persons who give regulated financial advice to retail clients. Those duties include:

• to comply with the standards of ethical behaviour, conduct, and client care required by the Code
• to meet the standards of competence, knowledge, and skill (including any continuing professional development requirements) provided in the Code for giving the advice.

In the Code, “client” means a retail client and “financial advice” means regulated financial advice given to a client.

The Code includes commentary to help persons who give financial advice to comply with the standards.

Download Code of Professional Conduct for Financial Advice Services PDF.