Platforms and researchers will be subjected to further scrutiny by ASIC over the role they play in oversight of conflicted and high-risk investment schemes like the failed First Guardian and Shield master funds.
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court told a media briefing on Wednesday morning super platforms have an obligation to make sure the investments they host are fit for purpose.
Macquarie and Equity Trustees are under investigation by the regulator in connection to Shield and First Guardian, and Court noted in some cases victims of the failed investments believed the investments were with Macquarie because it was sitting on their platform.
Shield was offered on the Macquarie Wrap platform, while both First Guardian and Shield were offered on the NQ Super and DASH platforms of which Equity Trustees was the trustee.
These trustees had previously made the decision to suspend adviser payments which led to clients with holdings in those products being referred to a different adviser licensee.
“The fact they had this underlying investment into this complex Shield Master Fund has come as news to them,” Court said.
“The documents they saw had the Macquarie brand on them. We are very concerned about that, and we are investigating Macquarie and Equity Trustees and what options ASIC has available to them to hold them to account for what we think are failures.”
But the regulator defended its own conduct and argued it has “jumped in quickly and much earlier” than it may have in the past, noting ASIC receives thousands of misconduct reports a year.
“We have enormous sympathy for these investors,” Court said.
“ASIC is not aware of these issues until the investors start reporting and things start going wrong.”
‘Very profitable’
First Guardian, Shield and United Global Capital represent the highest-profile cases of high-pressure tactics being used to force consumers to rollover their super into riskier products.
UGC will represent around 70 per cent of the expected $70 million in advice remediation to be paid out by the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort in FY26.
Court said the regulator will continue to clamp down on advisers and lead generation services, noting they had raked in tens of millions of dollars from commissions.
“It’s very profitable for these people to be making these calls,” Court said.
Court said consumers should press these callers on how they are remunerated for their services and involvement.
“This commission driven selling – we’ve seen it for decades,” Court said.
“It’s always been a problem and it remains a problem. Not just in financial services but across the economy.”
Court said ASIC’s surveillance of and enforcement action against the exploitation of superannuation savings is going to continue as one of its focus areas.
“Our primary aim here in the enforcement work we’re taking is at least at the outset, to preserve any assets that remain in the schemes so they can be realised to the extent they are available for the benefit of the consumers while we continue our investigative work,” Court said.
“We’ve really invested heavily in these matters, and we have diverted a number of resources form other important projects and just to give you a sense of the scale of the work, we’ve stood up a number of specialist investigation teams.
“We’ve executed a number of search warrants with the assistance of the AFP [Australian Federal Police], we’ve issued stop orders to prevent those products continuing to be offered in the market where that’s available to us.”
Underscoring this point was a separate announcement from ASIC on the morning of the briefing that the Federal Court had made interim travel restraint orders against Falcon Capital Limited directors David Anderson and Simon Selimaj.
Falcon Capital is the responsible entity (RE) for the First Guardian fund; the RE, fund and Anderson have all previously had assets frozen by ASIC.
Anderson and Selimaj have been prohibited from leaving or attempting to leave Australia until 27 February 2026.
The court also made interim orders freezing the assets of Selimaj until the same date, and the orders prevent him removing property outside of Australia; selling, charging, mortgaging, dealing with or disposing of property; incurring new liabilities; and withdrawing, transferring, disposing of or dealing with money held in bank accounts.
Rogue operators and red flags
The corporate regulator is launching another consumer campaign to warn consumers about “superannuation checks” which are used as a back door into high-pressure sales tactics to move people into conflicted advice products via telemarketing cold calls.
The warning comes due to increased concerns from ASIC that people are being enticed to invest their retirement savings into complex and risky schemes.
“If you are unsure or are feeling pressured, just hang up,” Court said in a media statement ahead of the briefing.
Court said the actions of rogue operators undermined the efforts of the rest of the industry to act in the best interests of investors.
The regulator warned of “red flags” to look out for, including the use of high-pressure sales tactics, cold calling, free super “health checks” and prizes – often via social media and web ads, poor or non-existent product disclosure and the promise of high or unrealistic investment returns.
ASIC said many of these operators will often try to offer free services to find and consolidate lost superannuation which can be done via the ATO website by anyone for free.
Court noted during the media briefing this isn’t a new public awareness priority, having already sounded the alarm just over a year ago, but that the regulator wants to take “every opportunity” it can to raise awareness about the issue.
“As the superannuation sector is growing, we’re seeing increased numbers of consumers who are quite widely concerned about their superannuation balances,” Court said.
“Are they going to have enough when they retire? That’s making them think about a range of investment options, including through the establishment of self-managed super funds and also by investing funds that are sitting on well-known superannuation platforms.”
But Court also praised the financial industry, which in large part does the right thing, and noted there are legitimate reasons and significant benefits for consumers to switch their super or to consolidate their super.
“This is a really fine line that we’re talking here, but we are seeing people increasingly risk their retirement savings after they’ve been enticed to invest in what are higher risk and complex investment schemes,” Court said.
“They are led to believe – by lead generators – their current fund is underperforming and they’re being persuaded to move those funds somewhere else, where they think they might get or will get a better return. It can be difficult for experienced investors to spot the problems and what’s really going on.”
Over 64000 of my super was invested in First Guardian without my knowledge. These assets are now frozen. I was hounded by a financial advisor to transfer my super funds, after a cold call. The super fund I was transfered to was New Qantum, which was absorced by Acclaim Wealth. The lack of transparency and unscrupulour head hunting of vulnerable and innocent Australian citizens should draw into question every aspect of the superannuation industry.
I’m not sure why “researchers” were included in the title, as there’s no further mention of them in the article, let alone in ASIC’s briefing
Yet again, ASIC doesn’t act quick enough, passes the buck, and forces advisers and product providers to foot the bill.
God forbid they start taking accountability.