On 13 November, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) unleashed a flurry of announcements detailing its latest court actions related to the Shield and First Guardian fund collapses.
InterPrac Financial Planning, alongside MWL Financial Services and SQM Research, became the latest financial services firms to be targeted for civil penalties.
In its filing to the Federal Court, the regulator alleged that “thousands of Australians were exposed to poor financial advice and significant risks” from Shield and First Guardian through “critical oversight and compliance failures” by Interprac.
“ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Interprac for allegedly failing to ensure its former authorised representatives Venture Egg (a corporate partnership), and Rhys Reilly Pty Ltd (together, Representatives), complied with the best interests obligations and for failing to have adequate risk management systems,” ASIC said at the time.
“Together, these Representatives advised around 6,843 clients to invest around $677 million of their superannuation into Shield and First Guardian. Both funds have now collapsed, leaving people’s superannuation at risk.”
Later that day, Sequoia signalled its intention to “vigorously” defend the allegations of wrongdoing against InterPrac.
“The InterPrac Board and support staff are committed to continue to act in clients’ best interests and take our compliance and governance obligations seriously,” said Sequoia Group managing director and chief executive Garry Crole at the time.
“We do recognise the impact on clients affected by the external investment product failure confirming InterPrac has cooperated fully with ASIC’s investigation.”
However, the ASX appears to be concerned that the company didn’t act fast enough to alert shareholders of the impending lawsuit, issuing Sequoia an Aware Letter that sought a concrete timeline of when the company knew a lawsuit was being filed and the actions taken to inform the market.
Responding to the letter, Sequoia said it considers the commencement of proceedings by ASIC to be “information that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of SEQ’s securities”.
Given the share price plummeted in the 20 minutes that the market was open before a trading halt was issued, it’s hard to argue with that assessment.
Providing a timeline of when the company was aware of ASIC’s lawsuit, Sequoia explained that a representative of Maddocks lawyers contacted the firm’s head of legal, risk and compliance Justin Harding late on the afternoon of 12 November to confirm he who to serve with ASIC notices.
Late afternoon, on Wednesday the 12th of November 2025, a representative of Maddocks lawyers contacted Justin Harding, via phone, seeking information as to the correct person to serve ASIC notices for InterPrac.
“As part of that phone call Mr Harding asked when a notice would be served and what it was about. The response from Maddocks was that they could not answer those questions,” Sequoia told the ASX.
“Mr Harding has received many requests from ASIC in the past and assumed it would be a further section 33 or 912C notification or complaint notice relating to matters InterPrac has been constructively working on.”
Harding received the notice of the Federal Court filing at 8am on 13 November, and forwarded the email to Crole at 9:28am – about 10 minutes after the regulator had issued a media release announcing the lawsuit.
“Mr Crole was not in his office at that time and as soon as he arrived, within 10 minutes of the sent email, Mr Harding verbally notified him of the email from Maddocks,” Sequoia said.
“Upon notification from Mr Harding, Mr Crole read the Maddock’s email and determined it was necessary to make an ASX release. Given the lack of time prior to the market opening, Mr Crole alerted the company secretary and CFO, Ms Lizzie Tan, requesting Boardroom Pty Ltd contact the ASX to request a pause in trading so the board could request a trading halt then assess the notice and then make an appropriate announcement.
“Ms Tan emailed Boardroom Pty Ltd on 13 November 2025 at 10.04 a.m. to action the trading pause. Boardroom Pty Ltd contacted ASX at 10.11 a.m. to request a pause in trading.”
Sequoia added it “believes that its actions were compliant with the Listing Rules”.
It’s the latest in a long line of fallout from the regulator’s action against InterPrac, with both Macquarie and Netwealth informing InterPrac advisers that the platforms would no longer accept new business from any of the licensee’s advisers as of mid-January 2026
In a statement to ifa, an InterPrac spokesperson confirmed that it had received correspondence from Macquarie and Netwealth advising of their intention to “cease permitting new business recommendation and distribution of their products and services by InterPrac and its associated companies from mid-January 2026”.
InterPrac advisers are also reportedly attempting to flee the licensee, though hefty PI run-off cover and reluctance from other licensees to take on the firm’s advisers may have stymied these efforts.
During Sequoia’s annual general meeting last week, Crole conceded that InterPrac does “have some blame”, indicating that the ASIC action will result in a “potential fine and there may be some restraints put on us in the form of things like an enforceable undertaking or other actions that we have to do to maintain the licence and grow the business”.
“That is expected, but what we do not expect is that InterPrac will look to close, will look to run away from its obligations,” he added.
