I’ve just discovered that my elderly parents are getting ripped off by a financial advisor and am wondering if there is any recourse for a situation like this.

They are 70yo with super of about 1M sitting in a regular super account. They are frugal and spend about 30k a year on living as they need the super to last the rest of their lives (20-30 years to be safe).

The financial advisor helped them set up their super account years go, and I’ve recently learnt is charging them 1% of their total investment per year just for keeping an eye on things. He doesn’t actively manage the money - the super fund does that. He meets with them once a year to give them an update on their accounts.

So he’s been charging them about 10k per year - around 1/4 of their yearly expenditure - for doing virtually nothing. He does a couple of other housekeeping things such as storing their wills and important documents, but nothing that should justify a significant fee.

This seems very predatory to me. Obviously they agreed to the deal, which their fault, but only due to their financial illiteracy.

I’m going to have them cancel his services immediately but am wondering if this is something I should report or seek to recoup some of the 60k in fees they’ve paid him over the last few years.

Is there any sort of government regulator/watchdog for financial advisors who I could contact on their behalf?