Frequently asked questions
The questions advisers actually ask.
Straight answers about what General Advice is, what happens to your clients, and what moving licensee actually involves. If yours is not here, ring one of the directors.
01
General Advice, explained
What the authorisation is, and what it is not.
General Advice is financial product advice given without taking the client’s personal objectives, financial situation or needs into account. It is a scope of advice defined in the Corporations Act, not a workaround and not a lesser standard.
You can still explain products, compare them and give a recommendation. What you cannot do is tailor that recommendation to the individual circumstances of the person in front of you, and you must give them the general advice warning so they understand the basis on which it was given.
No. It is a different scope, not a weaker one. Personal advice considers someone’s whole financial situation and carries the obligations that go with that, including a Statement of Advice. General Advice is narrower, and its obligations are proportionate to it.
For a straightforward life risk conversation, the personal advice apparatus was never proportionate in the first place. That is the entire reason HAE exists.
Yes, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. General Advice carries its own requirements: the general advice warning under section 949A, Design and Distribution Obligations, record keeping, and the licensee’s supervision and monitoring of your activity.
What changes is the weight of it, not the existence of it. Our framework is built so those obligations are met as part of doing the work rather than as a separate exercise afterwards.
You refer them on. Recognising that boundary is part of operating properly under General Advice, and it is something we work through with you.
Stretching a general advice conversation to cover something that needs personal advice is the fastest way to get into trouble, so the framework is designed to keep that line obvious rather than blurry.
02
Your clients and your book
The thing advisers worry about most when they move.
Yes. All of them, one hundred per cent. Client ownership sits with you, not with HAE Financial, for as long as you are with us and after you leave.
It is written into the arrangement rather than promised verbally, because we know it is the single thing advisers worry about most when they change licensee.
It goes with you. There is no clawback of client ownership and nothing to hand back. We would rather you stayed because the arrangement works than because leaving was made painful.
Yes, and most people do. What the transition looks like depends on where the book sits now and what your existing arrangements say, which is one of the first things we work through on the discovery call.
03
Moving to HAE
What the process looks like from here.
It starts with a thirty minute call where we work out whether General Advice genuinely suits the book you are writing. If it does, we take you through authorisation, get you onto the platform, arrange your insurer accreditations and set up your systems.
We have done this enough times to know where it gets stuck, and we will tell you honestly at the outset if we think you are better off staying where you are.
The AR Model is for Authorised Representatives, new or existing businesses, who want to be on the tools, writing business under their own brand with the assistance of the HAE Financial framework.
White Label Life suits established businesses who are looking to build a complimentary risk division under their brand but are limited with their resources and need a helping hand.
If you are genuinely unsure, that is exactly what the discovery call is for.
It depends on your existing accreditations and how quickly the paperwork moves at your end. We would rather give you a realistic timeframe once we know your situation than publish an optimistic one here that turns out not to apply to you.
Requirements depend on your background, your existing accreditations and which of the two models you choose. Rather than publish a generic checklist that may not apply to you, we go through exactly what is needed in your case on the discovery call.
04
Systems and technology
The platform, and what it is actually for.
Yes, and it is one of the main reasons advisers come to us. The platform is what makes the compliance framework work, because the audit trail is produced as a by-product of doing the job rather than as a separate task at the end of it.
Most advisers arrive treating it as a compliance requirement and end up using it as their main marketing channel.
It captures and documents every General Advice interaction, so the client file assembles itself. It can host your website, schedule your social content, and automate campaigns to your client base.
It is a third-party platform that we configure and operate specifically for compliant General Advice delivery, rather than something we wrote ourselves.
Absolutely. Under White Label Life, your brand is front and centre on everything, and HAE stays behind the scenes. If you choose the AR model, you act as an Authorised Representative, meaning you still operate under your own brand and company name within our framework. For both models, you maintain complete ownership of your web presence while utilising our powerful CRM to handle your compliance and client management.
05
Commercials and support
Insurers, cost, and who picks up the phone.
Ten: Acenda, AIA, ClearView, Encompass Protection, Futura Protection, MetLife, NEOS, OnePath, TAL and Zurich.
That breadth is deliberate. A narrow panel eventually forces you to place business somewhere that does not suit the client, and that is a problem you feel later rather than sooner.
It depends on which model you choose and the shape of your practice. We would rather quote you properly than publish a number here that turns out not to apply to you. It is a short conversation and you will get real figures on the call.
Pete or Marty. Pete handles compliance and is the Responsible Officer. Marty handles operations and systems. There is no account manager layer and no call queue, which is one of the genuine advantages of a small licensee.
Both of their mobile numbers are published on this site, which is not something most licensees do.
Yes. HAE Financial maintains Professional Indemnity insurance in compliance with section 912B of the Corporations Act 2001, covering the licensee, its Authorised Representatives and other representatives in relation to our AFSL obligations.
Complaints are handled internally first. If one cannot be resolved that way, HAE Financial is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, membership number 40296. AFCA provides free, independent external dispute resolution.
Still have a question that is not answered here? Ring Marty or Pete directly, or book thirty minutes and we will work through it properly.
Book a Discovery CallStop leaving life risk revenue on the table.
One conversation, thirty minutes. We will tell you honestly whether General Advice suits your business, and whether HAE is the right licensee for it. If the answer is no, we will say so.
Speak directly with Marty or Pete. No call centre, no gatekeeper.