The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is about to embark on one of its famous “shadow shopping” exercises to assess the advice advisers are giving their clients about the new superannuation choice scheme, which will come into action on July 1.

The regulator will use 300 real consumers recruited by a market research firm to conduct the survey. It says it won’t be advising the planners involved that they are being surveyed.

ASIC Executive Director of Consumer Protection Greg Tanzer says the regulator will begin the exercise around the same time as super choice comes into action.

“We will… be checking whether the financial advice complies with the law, particularly whether advisers have met their legal obligations related to switching,” he said. “These obligations include that the adviser finds out about the client’s current superannuation arrangements and considers any potential lost benefits or transfer costs before recommending a change.”

Mr Tanzer says the regulator will employ a professional compliance firm to assist in assessing the legal compliance of the participating advisers. “If legal breaches are discovered, ASIC will determine what enforcement action is appropriate.”

He says a full range of super advisers from all states and territories, including banks, planners and accountants will be targeted.

It’s not the first shadow shopping survey the regulator has undertaken on financial planners and advisers. In 2003 ASIC and the Australian Consumers Association (ACA) undertook the controversial “quality of advice” shadow shopping survey which found less than half of the planners examined were issuing clients with adequate advice.

While ASIC insists that this latest shadow shopping exercise “is distinct” from the ACA and ASIC quality of advice survey, it says it will conduct more surveys with ACA in the future.

ASIC will release the survey’s results progressively as they are available. A final report is expected to be released by the end of the year.