Help & support
Count Financial Limited (Count Financial)1 was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)2 from December 2011 to September 2019. Count Financial was sold to CountPlus Limited on 1 October 2019.
If you had/have financial planning arrangements in place with a Count Financial adviser, your arrangements won’t change, and you don’t need to take any action.
Fees For No Service (FFNS) remediation program
We’re reviewing records of financial advice customers who paid ongoing advice services fees for ongoing personal advice services between 1 July 2008 to 30 September 2019, to determine if there is evidence that those services were provided. Where we couldn’t find the evidence we were looking for, or it was impractical to look for evidence, we’re refunding the fees.
We also know that some customers’ Fee Disclosure Statements (FDS) contained incorrect information about the ongoing advice service fees they paid, and some customers may not have received their FDS or Renewal Notices. In communicating with customers, we’re notifying them of these issues and ensuring they have accurate information about the fees they paid.
For more information about the FFNS remediation program, download our Frequently Asked Questions or contact us using the below details:
Dial-up remuneration remediation
We’re reviewing records of financial advice customers who may have had ongoing additional adviser remuneration (dial-up remuneration) deducted from their account between 1 July 2008 to 30 September 2019, to determine whether services were promised but not provided in exchange for that dial-up remuneration. Where we couldn’t find the evidence of promised services being provided, or it was impractical to look for evidence, we’re refunding the dial-up remuneration we believe was paid.
We understand that correct FDS’s and Renweal Notices may not have been given, and dial-up remuneration wasn’t always included in them. To ensure customers have this information, we’re disclosing all the dial-up remuneration paid.
For more information about the dial-up remuneration remediation, download our Frequently Asked Questions or contact us using the below details:
Important information about the above remediation programs
If you’ve received communication from CBA about the ongoing advice service fees paid or dial-up remuneration deducted from multiple accounts or policies, you may have received numerous outcome letters. If you’d like a single letter restating all the ongoing advice service fees you paid, or all the dial-up remuneration deducted, please contact us using the relevant details above.
Please also contact us if you’ve been sent a Bank Account Nomination Form and are having issues completing or returning it so we can discuss other payment options.
Licensee Fees – Errors that may have led to inaccurate fee disclosure on annual Fee Disclosure Statements (FDS)
During the period July 2014 to May 2019, some customers paid a licensee service fee (also referred to as a Licensee Advice Fee or ‘LAF’) for services provided by Count Financial in relation to their investment in certain financial products (platforms) on Count Financial’s approved product list. The LAF wasn’t for financial advice or any adviser services. Rather, the LAF was for services provided by Count Financial - mostly related to tailoring and ongoing research in relation to the platforms and the investments available through those platforms. If you paid a LAF, it was deducted from your investment in the platform whilst you remained in the platform or until Count Financial ceased charging the LAF in 2019.
Although platform providers disclosed LAF payments to customers, customers paying a LAF should also have received a Count Financial FDS each year setting out the LAFs paid during the previous year. We’ve discovered that due to errors in Count Financial’s systems and processes, some customers’ FDS relating to a period ending before 1 November 2018 may have contained incorrect information about the LAF paid. The potential impacts of these errors are that:
If you paid a LAF during this period, your annual statements from the platform provider should contain accurate details of each LAF you paid.
If you’d like more information or a single letter restating all the LAF you’ve paid, or if you believe you may have suffered financial loss as a result of an incorrect FDS, please contact us using the below details:
Quality of Advice remediation program
Some customers may have been impacted by the advice provided by certain financial advisers aligned to the Bank. The Quality of Advice Remediation program is working to identify and contact these customers, assess their circumstances, and provide fair remediation where there is evidence of inappropriate financial advice. We’re committed to restoring affected customers to the position they would’ve been in had they received appropriate advice at the time.
If you’d like more information about the Quality of Advice remediation program, please contact us using the below details:
In connection with the sale of Count Financial to CountPlus Limited, CBA provided an indemnity to CountPlus Limited to cover remediation of past conduct. The CBA indemnity has a limit of $520 million and covers certain remediation activities that were identified at the time of sale and up to four years post sale.
If you have any concerns that we can’t resolve, you can also contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), an external dispute resolution service.
Phone: 1800 931 678
Email: info@afca.org.au
Mail: AFCA, GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001
Web: www.afca.org.au
CBA is committed to ensuring that customers receive any payment that has been assessed as payable as a result of particular financial advice remediation programs it’s undertaken. Customers with any unpaid remediation sums can refer to the Remediation Unpaid Monies page which provides further information about accessing unpaid remediation.
1Count Financial Limited ABN 19 001 974 625 AFSL 227232
2Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124
