Tina and Aristotle Papadopoulos are an elderly couple who immigrated to Australia from Greece in the 1950s. They both worked very hard in their family fruit shop business in Oakleigh. Tina and Aristotle want to spend more time with their grandchildren. They are now ready to retire and have sold their fruit shop for a nice profit of $750,000.
Tina and Aristotle want to invest this money. They make an appointment to see William a financial adviser who advises clients on a variety of financial products and investments.
William recommends they invest the bulk of their money in Big Dreams Ltd by acquiring shares. Tina and Aristotle are hesitant because they have never purchased shares before. William convinces them it's a good investment and claims they will receive double their investment in 18 months.
In fact, Big Dreams Ltd is performing poorly financially and William has no basis for making these claims.
William also convinces Tina and Aristotle to take out life insurance with a particular company even though Tina and Aristotle specifically say they do not think they need this. William is keen to sign them up because he receives a $400 Coles gift card for every client he signs up.
William prepares all of the necessary paperwork and obtains the life insurance policy for Tina and Aristotle. William does not give the couple an opportunity to read the paperwork because he does not believe either Tina or Aristotle would understand it anyway.
It turns out the life insurance policy is very expensive and the share investment falls through.
What are the legal issues under Corp Act and ASIC Act