Under Australian financial services law, financial product advice can be either General Advice or Personal Advice.

The distinction depends on whether the advice takes account of the client’s personal circumstances.

What is Personal Advice? #

Personal Advice is financial product advice provided in circumstances where:

• The advice provider has considered one or more of the client’s objectives, financial situation or needs, or
• A reasonable person might expect the provider to have considered one or more of those matters.

Personal Advice therefore involves more than simply discussing the features of an insurance product.

What is General Advice? #

General Advice is financial product advice that is not Personal Advice.

It may discuss or recommend a financial product or class of products without taking the client’s objectives, financial situation or needs into account in the way required for Personal Advice.

What about factual information? #

Not all insurance information is financial product advice.

Factual information can explain matters such as:

• What a policy covers
• Policy definitions
• Premiums
• Excesses
• Claims procedures
• Policy features

Whether a communication is factual information, General Advice or Personal Advice depends on the circumstances and what is actually communicated.

General Advice and Personal Advice are separate concepts from whether someone is treated as a retail or wholesale client.

Different regulatory obligations can apply depending on the type of advice and the client’s status.

Webber Insurance will identify the basis on which advice or information is being provided where required.

Our Financial Services Guide contains further information about the financial services we provide.

Contact our team if you have questions about the type of advice being provided.