What the letterhead shows
After a conversation about cover, jot down two things: the name of the person you spoke with, and each business name printed on their letterhead or email.
Add the date, and keep the note with the first document that arrives.
This Division applies in relation to the provision of personal advice (the advice) in the following circumstances: (a) the advice is provided: (i) by a financial services licensee (the providing entity); or (ii) by a person (the providing entity) in their capacity as authorised representative of a financial services licensee (the authorising licensee), or of 2 or more financial services licensees (the authorising licensees); and (b) the advice is provided to a person (the client) as a retail client.
The providing entity must give the client a Statement of Advice in accordance with this Subdivision and Subdivision D. (2) The Statement of Advice may be: (a) the means by which the advice is provided; or (b) a separate record of the advice. (3) This section has effect subject to sections 946AA and 946B.
Where a Statement of Advice is in hand
Where a Statement of Advice is among the papers, write the day it came to hand on the letterhead note, so the conversation and the paper sit on the same page of the record. If it arrived inside a longer document, note which document it was, and where in it the statement begins, so the paper can be named precisely in a later email.
If the statement came attached to an email, keep that email with it, printed or saved, since the sender and the date travel with the message. Any later question about the statement, sent in writing, belongs in the same place: clip the question and the reply to the statement itself, so the asking, the answer and the paper stay together in the file.
Then hold the statement up against the first note. Check the business name printed on it, and the adviser's own name, against the ones jotted down after the conversation, letter for letter. If they match, the note can say so in a word. If they differ, write both versions down with the date the difference was noticed, and file the statement beside the papers it talks about, so the two are always found together.
A record of what was said
Keep each letter and document together in date order, so the whole story reads from start to finish. The letterhead note belongs at the very front, since every later page can be checked against it.
If a document seems to say something different from the conversation, send a short email asking about it, and file the answer beside the page it relates to. Before the email goes, write down what was said, who said it and on which day, so the question rests on a note rather than a memory.
When a later letter arrives under a business name that was not on the first letterhead, add that name to the note with the date it first appeared and the paper it came on. Over months or years, that short list of names is what shows which business each page came from.
Where the words come from
- Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)Compilation No. 149, 19 September 2026. Based on content from the Federal Register of Legislation at 15 October 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government legislation please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au.