(1) In exercising its powers and carrying out its duties, the responsible
entity of a registered scheme must:
- (a)
- act honestly; and
- (b)
- exercise the degree of care and diligence that a reasonable person would
exercise if they were in the responsible entity's position; and
- (c)
- act in the best interests of the members and, if there is a conflict
between the members' interests and its own interests, give priority to the
members' interests; and
- (d)
- treat the members who hold interests of the same class equally and members
who hold interests of different classes fairly; and
- (e)
- not make use of information acquired through being the responsible entity
in order to:
- (i)
- gain an improper advantage for itself or another person; or
- (ii)
- cause detriment to the members of the scheme; and
- (f)
- ensure that the scheme's constitution meets the requirements of
sections 601GA and 601GB; and
- (g)
- ensure that the scheme's compliance plan meets the requirements of
section 601HA; and
- (h)
- comply with the scheme's compliance plan; and
- (i)
- ensure that scheme property is:
- (i)
- clearly identified as scheme property; and
- (ii)
- held separately from property of the responsible entity and property of
any other scheme; and
- (j)
- ensure that the scheme property is valued at regular intervals appropriate
to the nature of the property; and
- (k)
- ensure that all payments out of the scheme property are made in accordance
with the scheme's constitution and this Act; and
- (l)
- report to ASIC any breach of this Act that:
- (i)
- relates to the scheme; and
- (ii)
- has had, or is likely to have, a materially adverse effect on the
interests of members;
as soon as practicable after it becomes aware of the breach; and
- (m)
- carry out or comply with any other duty, not inconsistent with this Act,
that is conferred on the responsible entity by the scheme's constitution.
- Note: Subsection (1) is a civil penalty provision as defined by
section 1317DA and Part 9.4B provides for civil and criminal
consequences of contravening it.
(2) The responsible entity holds scheme property on trust for scheme members.
- Note: Under subsection 601FB(2), the responsible entity may appoint an agent
to hold scheme property separately from other property.
(3) A duty of the responsible entity under subsection (1) or (2)
overrides any conflicting duty an officer or employee of the
responsible entity has under Part 2D.1.
Investment of scheme property in
other managed investment schemes
(4) The responsible entity may only invest
scheme property, or keep scheme property invested, in another
managed investment scheme if that other scheme is registered under this
Chapter.