There can be no more grievous indictment of a service provider than that they continually charged for a service that was never provided, Mike Taylor writes.

ASIC releases report on the charging of advice fees without providing advice by major financial institutions. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today released Report 499 Financial advice: Fees for no service (REP 499).

Since the collapse of Storm Financial at the end of 2008, many theories have been expounded as to what ails the financial planning industry and a number of fixes have been recommended. Yet, the truth is that no one during this time has really pinpointed the root cause of this financial disaster.

Rarely does the heart bleed for insurance companies, but today we confess to mustering a little compassion.