FPA chair Julie Berry is considering appealing against a court judgement that has left her without six months worth of adviser service fee payments (ASF) from clients linked to an IOOF-owned platform.
Late last month, a New South Wales Supreme Court judge ruled Berry’s case against Questor Financial Services Limited (Questor), Executive Wealth Management Financial Services Pty Limited (EWM) and Bridges Financial Services Pty Limited (Bridges) had no merit.
“We’re very disappointed. We’re examining our position in respect to an appeal,” Berry told InvestorDaily.
“As I say it was always about putting the clients first as far as myself and ComCorp were concerned. We had no issue with continuing to use that platform. The clients directed that a client service fee was paid to me from that platform. That seems to have no bearing.”
Berry, a principal of advisory firm Berry Financial Services, would not be drawn on when and if she would make an appeal, but said an independent lawyer is looking into her case.
While Questor has allowed Berry’s clients to remain with Questor’s platform, The Portfolio Services (TPS), she has not received an ASF from Questor since July 2009.
“My clients are still in there and they are allowing me to manage them in there but they are not paying me. They haven’t paid me since July. So now we’re looking at how we recoup the fees,” Berry said.
As the fees from TPS constitute a large part of the income of Berry’s firm, the lack of payments has hit the group hard.
“In actual fact, ComCorp [Berry’s new dealer group] have provided very good support. Were it not for them I think we’d be in a little bit of bother,” she said.
Berry sought legal action in September last year, claiming Questor was obliged to deduct 88 per cent of ASFs from those investors’ funds in products offered by Questor, and EWM/Bridges were obliged to pay them to her.
Questor, EWM and Bridges denied they are obliged to deduct or pay the ASFs to Berry.
They claim they were only obliged to pay the ASFs to Berry while she remained an authorised representative of EWM.
Berry resigned as an authorised representative from EWM on 10 July last year to join rival financial services firm ComCorp.
