A former Sentinel Private Wealth adviser has been banned from the industry for five years for churning.

Stephen Beckton recommended clients change their life insurance policies when there was little benefit but significant cost.

This advice benefitted Mr Beckton through increased adviser fees and commissions.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says he failed to act in clients’ best interests by not conducting reasonable investigations of their cover.

His advice may have left clients in a worse position, and Mr Beckton failed to disclose the commissions.

ASIC Deputy Chairman Peter Kell says advisers must put clients’ interests first.

“Switching that provides little benefit to the client but is very profitable to advisers is clearly unacceptable,” he said.

Mr Beckton was a representative of Sentinel from September 2013 until last month.