A former Commonwealth Financial Planning adviser who left clients without insurance after they switched products has been banned for five years.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) says Kimberley Holgate advised clients to roll their superannuation into a product issued by Commonwealth-related Colonial First State, and to cancel insurance policies and apply for CommInsure cover.

“Ms Holgate cancelled clients’ existing insurance prior to replacement cover being approved,” ASIC said. “As a result, some clients were left without insurance cover at all, others were without insurance cover for a period of time and some had to pay increased premiums and fees.”

The advice to switch super did not improve clients’ financial positions.

ASIC found Ms Holgate, from Wagga Wagga, failed to act in clients’ best interests and did not prioritise their interests when advising them to acquire products that entitled her, her employer and its related entities to a financial benefit.

It says she engaged in conduct likely to mislead by cutting clients’ signatures held on file and pasting them onto new documents.

Ms Holgate, an authorised representative of Commonwealth Financial Planning from January 2014 to October 2015, can ask the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to review the decision.