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Advertising Guidelines
These guidelines apply to businesses that wish to advertise products or services
on FAAA platforms, including Money & Life, FAAA Career Centre and FAAA Connection
1. Introduction and scope
These guidelines apply to businesses that wish to advertise products or services on Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) platforms, including Money & Life (moneyandlife.com.au), FAAA Career Centre (careers.faaa.au) and FAAA Connection (faaaconnection.au).
The measures in these guidelines are intended to assist the FAAA to comply with its regulatory obligations relating to publishing advertisements, particularly advertisements for financial products and services.
2. The FAAA’s role
The FAAA is Australia’s leading professional association for financial advice professionals. The FAAA does not provide any financial services and is not authorised under an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) to do so.
The FAAA offers advertising space on its websites and communications to its advertising clients, including Australian financial services licensees (AFS licensees) and authorised representatives of AFS licensees. This service is limited to publishing advertising content that is provided to the FAAA. The FAAA selects which advertisers appear on its websites but does not select the content of the advertisements or otherwise exercise control over the content of the advertisements. The FAAA does not endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in the advertisements.
The FAAA’s advertising clients do not act on behalf of the FAAA and must not hold themselves out as otherwise being able to bind or represent the FAAA.
3. Guidelines
The FAAA is committed to promoting the highest professional standards in the financial advice industry and helping all Australians achieve their financial goals. In line with this commitment, advertisements published on FAAA’s websites and communications must meet the standards set out below. The FAAA reserves the right to remove or not publish advertisements that do not, in the opinion of the FAAA, meet these standards.
A. Identifying your business
The overall communication to the target audience should be clear as to who is providing the information and in what capacity (e.g. as a licensee). If you are an AFS licensee or authorised representative, the advertisement should generally contain your AFSL number or authorised representative number (as applicable). You must not advertise financial services that you are not licensed or authorised to provide.
B. Warnings and disclosures for financial products
The advertisement should contain all required warnings and disclosures, including those required under the Corporations Act 2001.
If you are advertising a particular financial product or class of financial product that is issued by you and available for acquisition by retail clients, the advertisement must:
- identify the issuer of the financial product (or, if it is being sold, the seller of the product);
- say that a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) is available and where it can be obtained (e.g. by providing a link);
- describe the target market for the product or specify where the target market determination (TMD) is available (e.g. by providing a link); and
- say that a person should consider the PDS and TMD, and whether the product is appropriate for them, before making a decision to acquire or continue to hold the product.
If the advertisement does not relate to a financial product or class of financial products issued by you, then a general advice warning is also typically required.
Please note that this guideline is not intended to be an exhaustive list of your disclosure obligations. You should obtain your own advice as to the specific disclosure requirements that apply to your business.
C. Restricted terms
If a commission or other gifts are received, or there is any other association which might be expected to influence you in providing any financial service, the advertising material must not use the following terms (or any terms of like import) – independent; impartial; unbiased; independently owned; non-aligned or non-institutionally owned.
The material must also not describe you or your business using any of the following terms, unless authorised to do so – stockbroker; sharebroker; futures broker; insurance broker; insurance broking; general insurance broker; life insurance broker; accounting and audit services; business services, tax/tax services/tax minimisation, or similar wording, legal services; real estate; direct property advice; consulting services; administration and compliance of SMSFs or credit advice/assistance.
D. False or misleading representations
The overall impression of the advertisement must not be misleading or deceptive. This includes photographs, diagrams, images and examples contained in the advertisement. You must have a reasonable basis for believing that the claims made, or information used, in the advertisement are accurate and reliable. Particular care should be taken when making representations about – returns, benefits and risk; past performance; ASIC regulation or approval; third parties; endorsements and testimonials; opinions or projections regarding future matters; comparisons between products; environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials of a financial product or service; fees and costs; and interest rates.
Terms and phrases should not be used in a way which is inconsistent with their ordinary meaning (e.g. free, secure and guaranteed). Warnings, disclaimers, qualifications and fine print should not be inconsistent with other content (e.g. headline claims) and should be sufficiently prominent to convey key information on first viewing.
Descriptions of specific product features must be consistent with any disclosure documents (e.g. PDS or prospectus).
E. Target market
The advertisement should not state or imply that a financial product is appropriate for particular types of consumers, unless you have made such an assessment, and any such assessment is consistent with any applicable TMD relating to the product. If a TMD is required for the financial product, you must take reasonable steps to ensure that your retail product distribution conduct (including the provision of general advice in advertisements) is consistent with the TMD.
The FAAA considers that its websites are generally not appropriate channels for advertising complex financial products (such as CFDs), as these products are only appropriate for a limited group of people.
F. Links
Advertisements for financial products or services must not contain – any unique links (i.e. links that can’t be accessed through other means) to financial product websites or trading platforms; monetised links (i.e. that provide payment to the FAAA for each click-through); or any links that provide particular benefits to people who purchase products or sign up to platforms because of the link.
The FAAA charges fees for advertising space. The FAAA does not accept payments from AFS licensees or authorised representatives based on sales or acquisitions of financial products advertised on its website(s).
