Tribunal affirms ASIC ban on advisers at the centre of Shield and First Guardian failed advice

The five-year ban imposed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission on former Venture Egg financial adviser Andrew Hanley and FSGA adviser Shane Monte Silva has been confirmed by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) on 7 September.

In December 2025, ASIC banned Monte Silva for contravening financial services laws when advising five clients to move their superannuation. The five-year ban, which prevents him from providing financial services, was publicly announced in April 2026. Monte Silva applied for a review with the ART.

“The Applicant’s conduct has damaged the public’s confidence in, and the integrity of, the financial market relating to superannuation,” the ART said. “He engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and continued to participate in an advice-giving model despite knowing that it was flawed.

“A reasonable and competent financial adviser would have stepped aside and stopped giving the flawed advice. His failure to do so demonstrated a disregard for the law and compliance with regulations.”

The decision was based on advice provided by Monte Silva between July and August 2023 to roll their existing superannuation into platforms with substantial investments in Shield and First Guardian.

The ART found he was not involved in gathering client information, had limited time to assess client’s circumstances and relied on information provided by others. In three cases he presented advice that supposedly reflected his own advice, but where the Statement of Advice was in someone else’s name.

Hanley was banned from providing financial advice for five-years in March 2026. His case was also heard on 7 September when the ART found that Hanley provided a five-year table of comparison of past performance when First Guardian had not been in existence that long.

“During the period of the ban, the Applicant should not be allowed to provide any financial services, control a financial services business, or perform any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business. A conditional banning order is not appropriate,” the ART said.

Hanley was found to have failed to act in the best interest of six clients. Furthermore, it found Hanley had little or no interactions with the people he was advising. In one case he spent five minutes on the phone with the client and “asked none of the questions needed to determine the client’s risk profile but rather relied on the result of the assessment which is recorded in the Statement of Advice as ‘high growth’”.

“It is not apparent whether the Applicant relied on any fact-find document prepared by the telemarketer but in any event the Applicant failed to confirm for himself with the client the information that one would expect to be in a fact-find document.”

Hanley was an authorised representative of Interprac Financial Planning which was managed by former Sequoia Financial Group managing director and CEO Garry Peter Crole.

Earlier in the week, ASIC announced Crole had been banned for 10 years from performing, as a director or responsible manager, any function involved in carrying on a financial services business.

ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland said that financial advisers cannot outsource their legal obligations to unlicensed marketers, lead generators or paraplanners.

“Advisers must personally understand their clients’ circumstances, critically assess the information gathered and investigate the products they recommend. Simply presenting advice prepared through a high-volume, templated process does not meet those obligations.

“Superannuation is for many people one of their most valuable assets. Its role is to support their quality of life in retirement. Advisers recommending that clients switch their retirement savings must exercise particular care and ensure the advice is genuinely in the client’s best interests.”

Both Monte Silva and Hanley are prohibited from providing financial services, controlling a financial services business, or performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business.

Shield and First Guardian-related advisers banned

Monte Silva and Hanley are only two of the advisers banned so far related to ASIC’s Shield and First Guardian actions.

In June 2025, ASIC cancelled the AFS license of FSGA and permanently banned its responsible manager Graham Holmes.

In July 2025, ASIC banned former MWL financial adviser: Isaac McQueen for four years, Matthew Simon Bradley for eight years, Rocco D’Amelio for seven years and Robert Crossing for six years.

On 28 August 2025, ASIC cancelled the Australian Financial Services licence of MWL Financial Services and banned MWL’s director Nicholas Maikousis for 10 years over conduct in relation to the Shield Master Fund. It banned compliance manager Robert John Tohill of MWL Financial Services for five years.

In October 2025, ASIC banned former MWL financial adviser Wade Lance Spooner for eight years and former UGC and MWL adviser Jovan Videkanic for seven years. It also secured interim orders in the Federal Court restraining Ferras Merhi from operating within the financial services industry for his role as one of the mains advisers behind the distribution of the Shield and First Guardian funds.

In December 2025, ASIC banned former MWL and UGC adviser Louis Van Coppenhagen for seven years.

In February this year, ASIC banned former MWL adviser Neil McPherson for four years.

In March, ASIC banned Raluca Terheci, former MWL adviser for six years.

In April, ASIC banned Rhys James Rolls Reilly for 10 years due to misconduct relating to advice recommending First Guardian. It also banned MWL’s former adviser David Lofthouse for three years, John Morgan for five years and permanently banned former Interprac adviser Aristotle Papapavlou.

In July, ASIC banned Nicole Niu for five years and Christian Henry for three years, both from MWL.