Client Service Agreements Updated

We have recently completed a review of the Client Service Agreement (CSA) templates and the updated templates, along with lists of changes that have been made, are now available for download on the Templates & Forms/Templates page under Client Service Agreements or by clicking HERE.

The major change to note in the documentation is that there is no longer a standalone CSA for Limited advice. The requirements/functionality of the Limited CSA is now incorporated into the Annual CSA which you can edit depending on your requirements. The documents are as follows:

• Client Service Agreement – Annual & Limited vJul22

• Client Service Agreement – Ongoing vJul22

Each template has an accompanying ‘CHANGES’ document which outlines the changes made from the Sept 21 versions to the Jul 22 versions. You will find this useful if you would prefer to update CSA’s that you have on file which you have already branded to your practice. The ‘CHANGES’ documents are colour coded as follows:

• Purple (underlined) = insertion, deletion

• Green = moved within document

• Grey – this is not a change, it simply indicates that an item has a comment (regardless of whether it had a comment in the earlier document)

• Red text and Yellow highlights = as per the IFA-Aust conventions, these indicate items which are editable by you in the document itself

The changes incorporate some updated legal advice which has provided clarity on the start date of annual or limited advice agreements ie: non-ongoing fee agreements (OFA), which is that they must include the service period in the body of the agreement, and it is that which determines the agreement period.

For example:

1. CSA is created on & dated 1st August 2022

2. Service period specified within the agreement is 1st September 2022 to 30th August 2023

3. Client signs and dates the document 18th August 2022

In this example the commencement date would be 1st September 2022 but services must cease on 30th August 2023. The client may pay their fees outside of these dates but you may not collect any more fees than what is specified in the agreement (or if a client inadvertently pays more for any reason they must be refunded or the agreement automatically becomes an OFA and the FDS and consent rules would apply).

If the client wishes to engage you again after 30th August 2023 a new agreement would be produced.