Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Issues Warning to Australia Retirement Savings Superannuation Trustees to Address Failures to Protect Retirement Savings Including Harmful Advice Fee Deductions, Unusual Fees & Investment Platforms and High-Risk Switching Activity, Collapses of Shield Master Fund & First Guardian Master Fund Resulted in $690 Million (AUD 1 Billion) Losses to 11,000 Australia Citizens
29th June 2026 | Hong Kong
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued a warning to Australia retirement savings superannuation trustees to address failures to protect retirement savings including harmful advice fee deductions, unusual fees & investment platforms and high-risk switching activity. The collapses of Shield Master Fund & First Guardian Master Fund resulted in $690 million (AUD 1 billion) losses to 11,000 Australia citizens. Announcement (29/6/26): “ASIC is warning superannuation trustees to address stark and persistent failures to protect retirement savings, including gaps in the monitoring of harmful advice fee deductions, unusual fees and investment patterns, and high-risk superannuation switching activity. ASIC Report 833 Safeguarding super: How well are platform trustees monitoring risks to retirement savings? (REP 833) details findings from a review of six platform trustees entrusted with over $300 billion in retirement savings — about three quarters of total funds managed by platform trustees. ASIC’s review identified the following areas requiring immediate attention from trustees: 1) Persistent gaps in advice fee controls, which in some cases have regressed over the past two years. One trustee proposed a fee cap of $30,000 — well beyond caps identified in ASIC Report 781 Review of superannuation trustee practices: Protecting members from harmful advice charges (REP 781). 2) Limited checks of advice documents with half of the trustees reporting they did not conduct any checks for at least one of the months in ASIC’s review period. 3) Insufficient focus on understanding the advice licensees’ business models, including whether they use lead generators or other third‑party referral sources. 4) Inadequate monitoring of key risk indicators, such as member churn, patterns in fees, holding limits and unusual fund flows. Amid continued growth in demand for platform funds, Commissioner Constant said it had never been more important for platform trustees to take the necessary steps to uphold confidence.” More info below:
“ Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Issues Warning to Australia Retirement Savings Superannuation Trustees to Address Failures to Protect Retirement Savings Including Harmful Advice Fee Deductions, Unusual Fees & Investment Platforms and High-Risk Switching Activity, Collapses of Shield Master Fund & First Guardian Master Fund Resulted in $690 Million (AUD 1 Billion) Losses to 11,000 Australia Citizens “
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ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant: “It’s clear some trustees are not doing enough to protect their members, despite repeated warnings from ASIC and APRA about the dangers of poor oversight. Nor have they learned lessons from the collapses of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund, which cost more than 11,000 Australians around $1 billion in retirement savings. In one disturbing case, a trustee failed to take further action for 13 months after becoming aware of suspicious activity from a representative of an advice licensee. During that time, another representative of that licensee submitted applications to rollover superannuation balances containing the falsified signatures of a deceased adviser. Many of the clear gaps in oversight are deeply concerning and difficult to justify. Trustees should not expose their members’ retirement savings to unacceptable risks in the pursuit of volume growth. In this age of rapidly evolving technology and data-driven intelligence, it is extraordinary to see some trustees not carrying out any checks in a month despite a 75% adverse finding rate, and others being comfortable with limited, almost entirely manual indicators to monitor potential harm.
In the 10 years to June 2025, superannuation platforms have experienced extraordinary growth, with a more than three-fold increase in member benefits, from $123 billion to $396 billion, compared to the sector which more than doubled. Over the same period, advice fees charged from superannuation platforms have increased four-fold to $2.3 billion. We acknowledge that much of this growth has been driven by the segment’s innovative retirement options, and by Australians looking for more control over their superannuation investments. But this only underscores the importance of prudent trustee oversight that monitors for harmful risks to retirement savings. Trustees are accountable to their members for this and their members deserve to have confidence in their stewardship. Despite being well aware of the dangers of poor oversight — from the Royal Commission’s exposure of fees for no service to the egregious conduct exposed in the Shield and First Guardian failings — some trustees failed to establish basic protections, like looking into an advice licensee’s business model before they are onboarded. This is a clear breach of trust.
All superannuation trustees should immediately review and consider areas for improvement before risks translate to serious harms for Australians and their hard-earned retirement savings. Scrutinising fees that appear designed to bypass controls, and other processes to identify unusual activity such as high‑risk superannuation switching from lead generators, are among actions trustee can take to protect their members. Where trustees have concerns about potential misconduct, they should immediately report it to ASIC for further investigation. Where we identify significant non-compliance, we will not hesitate to exercise our regulatory powers, including enforcement action”
Info – ASIC REP 833 includes a list of calls to action across key focus areas (see Table 1) for all trustees to consider. ASIC has shared information about features associated with some lead generation services in financial advice and superannuation that may expose consumers to a risk of significant losses. Commissioner Constant added that where appropriate, ASIC would consider enforcement action, noting ASIC’s separate actions against Equity Trustees Superannuation Limited concerning the Shield Master Fund (25-176MR) and the First Guardian Master Fund (26-101MR), as well as actions against Diversa Trustees Limited (25-296MR), Macquarie Investment Management Limited (26-053MR), and Netwealth (25-307MR). Background – ASIC reviewed a sample of six platform trustees (and a corresponding fund) representing $305 billion in member benefits and 977,000 member accounts as at December 2025. ASIC and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) have been concerned about gaps in trustees’ oversight of advisers, advice licensees and investments that are made available to members. These issues concern all participants in the superannuation sector. However, recent high‑profile cases of misconduct involving the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund have exposed particular weaknesses in parts of the platforms segment. ASIC has launched civil penalty proceedings against Equity Trustees (25-176MR) and Diversa Trustees (25-296MR) for alleged failures relating to their oversight of the Shield and First Guardian investments, respectively. ASIC launched a second case against Equity Trustees last month, alleging failures in care, skill and diligence concerning the decision to allow members to invest in the First Guardian (26-101MR). ASIC is seeking compensation for members for losses resulting from the alleged failures by Equity Trustees and Diversa, as well as declarations and civil penalties. In March 2026, the Federal Court declared Macquarie Investment Management Limited (MIML) contravened the Corporations Act by failing to place the Shield on a watch list for heightened monitoring (26-053MR). MIML paid approximately $321 million to affected members in September 2025. Last December, Netwealth also agreed to pay over $100 million in compensation to more than 1,000 Australians who invested their superannuation in the First Guardian and has admitted it contravened the Corporations Act (25-307MR).
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Issues Warning to Australia Retirement Savings Superannuation Trustees to Address Failures to Protect Retirement Savings Including Harmful Advice Fee Deductions, Unusual Fees & Investment Platforms and High-Risk Switching Activity, Collapses of Shield Master Fund & First Guardian Master Fund Resulted in $690 Million (AUD 1 Billion) Losses to 11,000 Australia Citizens
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