On Friday 12 December 2014, ASIC released a class order clarifying key fee and cost disclosure requirements for product disclosure statements and periodic statements for superannuation and managed investment products. This follows an ASIC review of fee disclosure practices and a consultation process that took place in September 2014.
As stated in the media release, the class order addresses issues such as:
- Disclosure of costs of investing in interposed vehicles
- Disclosure of indirect costs
- Removal of doubt that double counting of some costs for superannuation products is not required and
- The appropriate application of the consumer advisory warning.
The new class order will apply to all PDSs’ for relevant products from 1 January 2016 and apply to periodic statements that must be given to product holders from 1 January 2017.
