Radio comments complaint upheld

By ANNE GIBSON

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against Doug Somers-Edgar of Money Managers for comments he made on a Radio Pacific show accusing other financial advisers of stealing from their clients.

Financial adviser Muriel Dunn of Muriel Dunn Financial Services complained about the show on September 15 last year, when Somers-Edgar talked about the state of the financial advisory industry.

Somers-Edgar stated on the show that the financial planning industry was in dire straits, that some advisers would leave the industry and several would be exposed for stealing from their own clients.

Dunn complained that Somers-Edgar's comments denigrated financial planners and the integrity of the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association.

She told the authority in her complaint that "to have someone broadcast a statement suggesting that financial planners will, before long, be stealing from our clients/investors is completely abhorrent".

Dunn also has a regular Monday advertising-based show on Radio Pacific.

In response, Somers-Edgar said an executive member of the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association had been found guilty of stealing a large sum of money from a local society for which he was the treasurer.

Somers-Edgar said that on the day before the programme, he was asked by "a senior financial planner of many years' experience if I could please warn listeners of the activities of those who steal from clients" and also those who reinvest funds to earn fees.

Somers-Edgar said the Advertising Standards Complaints Board did not have jurisdiction, because the programme was not an advertisement.

But Radio Pacific submitted the opposite, stating that the programme was paid for and therefore was an advertisement. It said it had no direct involvement in the programme's editorial content.

The board therefore had jurisdiction and was able to rule.

The board found that Somers-Edgar's comments denigrated "identifiable competitors" and did not observe a high standard of social responsibility. The exaggerated claims would be likely to confuse consumers and play on fear, it found.