Bank charged dead clients for advice, hearing told

Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s financial advisers have charged dead clients for financial advice, in one case for more than a decade, in shocking evidence heard at the banking royal commission, notes a report in The Guardian. It says the commission was given evidence from a 2015 document for CBA’s Count Financial business that showed multiple examples of financial advisers charging ongoing service fees to clients who had died. One adviser knew that a client had died in 2004 but he continued to charge adviser service fees that kept being charged for a decade. The adviser was getting about $65 a month in fees in 2014 and 2015. Another adviser was found to have been charging service fees for multiple clients with no evidence of ongoing services being provided. The report notes that yesterday (Wednesday) the bank admitted to being the worst financial services entity in Australia for charging customers fees for financial advice they never received.