{"id":995399,"date":"2026-05-18T04:38:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncsgx.com\/au\/?p=995399"},"modified":"2026-05-18T04:44:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:44:48","slug":"annual-fee-consent-and-fds-checklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncsgx.com\/au\/blog\/annual-fee-consent-and-fds-checklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Fee Consent &\u00a0FDS:\u00a0Paraplanners Compliance Checklist\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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For paraplanners working alongside\u00a0<\/span>Australian financial advisers<\/span><\/a>, the Annual Fee Consent and FDS Checklist sits at the\u00a0centre\u00a0of every ongoing fee renewal that crosses the desk. The Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms that\u00a0commenced\u00a0in January 2025\u00a0didn’t\u00a0make this work disappear,\u00a0they\u00a0consolidated\u00a0some documents, tightened others, and shifted the practical compliance burden onto the single annual consent that now does the job two separate documents used to.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

This guide walks through what the consolidated regime looks like in practice, the ASIC guidelines for fee disclosure statements that still drive surveillance, and the annual fee consent compliance checklist a paraplanner can run before any consent leaves the office.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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What DBFO Tranche 1 changed about FDS and consent<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>

Before 10 January 2025, an ongoing fee client typically received two separate documents each year. The Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) covered the historical disclosure of fees received and services provided over the previous 12 months. The written consent added by the post-Hayne Royal Commission reforms in July 2021 was the separate authority that allowed the licensee to deduct fees from the client’s product accounts. Anniversary dates, signed consents, and opt-in renewals: three moving parts that\u00a0frequently\u00a0fell\u00a0out of sync.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Act 2024 collapsed these into a single annual document: the Ongoing Fee Consent. The\u00a0consolidated\u00a0form must still include the historical fee and service disclosures that used to live in the FDS, plus the forward-looking consent for the next 12 months.\u00a0<\/span>ASIC’s\u00a0Information Sheet 286 (INFO 286)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0sets out how the regulator expects this to\u00a0look\u00a0into\u00a0practice.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Practices with arrangements\u00a0entered\u00a0before 10 January 2025 had transitional provisions to migrate. By mid-2026, the bulk of advice practices have moved every client across to the new single-form template.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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What the consolidated consent must contain<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>

The single consent is doing two jobs at once. The Corporations Act, the Corporations Regulations 2001, and ASIC’s guidance set out the minimum content:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>