For financial advice practices

To add a TPA to a mutual client's account, you can either:

• Use CSC’s TPA form; or
• Use your own TPA form, preferably on your letterhead, but it must have key business information (see 'What makes a TPA valid or invalid' for more details).

The completed TPA forms should be emailed to financialplannerrequests@csc.gov.au. This will ensure the email is sent directly to our dedicated Adviser Services team.

Emails sent to other CSC addresses will also be sent to the dedicated Adviser Services team, but this may delay the processing time.

Valid TPA’s must include all of the following:

• The member’s first and last name (matching our records)
• Three (3) other points of identification that CSC has on the member’s file (see What member POI needs to be included with the TPA? for the full list)
• Member’s signature (both wet and digital signatures accepted)
• Member has dated the TPA (both we and digital dates accepted)
• The authority details, including the Advice Practice and staff details
• Whether the authority is for “All Staff” or “Listed Staff” (if listed, it must include the names of those listed staff)
• Any expiry date (if applicable) – if an expiry date is not given, the authority will remain in place until it is revoked by the member.

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An authority will become invalid if any of the following occur:

• The TPA has passed the expiry date
• The member revokes the authority by calling CSC and requesting it is revoked to one of our member service representatives
• The member sends an email to CSC requesting the authority be revoked.
  Note the email must be sent using the members nominated email address (as held on our records)
• There are no more nominated “Listed Staff” at the Advice Practice named in the TPA
• If the member passes away

A valid TPA will remain in place indefinitely unless one of the above invalidation conditions occur.

• “Listed (or Nominated) Staff” TPA’s only allow the members account information to be released to specific named staff of your Advice Practice.
• “All Staff” TPA’s allow the members information to be provided to any / all staff of your Advice Practice.
• We recommend discussing with your client, the benefit of enabling “all staff” of your Advice Practice to hold authority on their account. While we will always accept “Listed/Nominated Staff” TPAs, allowing “all staff” to have access to a member’s account information makes the request for member information process much quicker for you and the member.

Apart from naming your Advice Practice on the TPA, the form should also include the following information to ensure future requests for member information can be validated easily:

• Your Advice Practice company / trading name
• Your Advice Practices’ ABN
• Your Licensee’s AFSL number
• Your business address (Street or PO Box allowed)
• Your business email address
• Your business phone number

Additionally, it’s best practice to include:

• The name of the Primary Adviser to be nominated on the member’s account
• Their Authorised Representative Number

Apart from including all the information to make a TPA valid, to request member-specific information, the TPA should also include three (3) additional points of identification. This allows the Adviser Service team to add the authority to the members' account and meet the points of identification requirement before any member information can be sent to you.

The additional 3 points of identification may be sourced from any personal details held on CSC’s records. These may include any of the following:

• Date of birth
• CSC Scheme, Fund, Member Number
• Current address (postal or residential)
• Current email address
• Current telephone number
• Current super salary
• Current contribution rate
• Current or most recent employer
• Date customer started or exited the scheme
• Current bank details
• Current gross/net pension amount
• Current rank (ADF customers only)

Personal details must be based on the most current information held on CSC’s files. However, there may be instances where outdated information (such as a previous address) can be used as part of the points of identification process.

Authorities are given by the member to the Advice Practice and either “all staff” or “listed staff” at that Advice Practice. Who the AFS Licensee is for the Advice Practice isn’t relevant, so changing AFS Licensee will not change the validity of the authority – i.e. It will continue to be valid.

Authorities will remain valid until they expire, are revoked by your client (our member), or if any of the other revocation criteria occur.

No, an Advice Practice cannot directly revoke an authority because the authority is given by the member to the Advice Practice. However, if an Advice Practice informs us that they no longer wish to hold an authority on a client’s/member’s account, we will contact the member via email to seek permission to remove the authority. We will notify the Advice Practice via email once the member has approved the removal of the authority.

No, CSC accepts both wet and digital signatures on all TPA forms.

No, copies of identification do not have to be included with TPAs.

Renewed authorities are treated the same as new authorities. Advice Practices must follow the same process as when adding a new TPA.