Brendan Rodwell was a director at Crown Wealth Group, but ASIC said it had reason to believe he was not adequately trained or competent to perform functions in or control a financial services business after failing to adequately address fees-for-no-service (FFNS) conduct by Lighthouse Partners, one of Crown Wealth’s representatives.
Lighthouse Partners was a corporate authorised representative of Crown Wealth Group between 16 August 2018 and 4 April 2023. On 13 March 2024, ASIC cancelled Crown Wealth Group’s Australian Financial Services Licence after it was placed into voluntary administration.
ASIC said it was satisfied that Rodwell’s conduct was the “result of carelessness and inadvertence rather than a deliberate course of action to conceal or disregard the FFNS conduct”.
He has been banned from performing any function involved in carrying on a financial services business, and from controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business, for two years.
More specifically, ASIC found that Rodwell, as a director of Crown Wealth:
- Failed to take proactive steps to ensure Crown Wealth complied with its obligation to report the FFNS conduct to ASIC as a reportable situation within 30 days after becoming aware of it. Crown Wealth did not lodge a reportable situation with ASIC until six months after becoming aware of the FFNS conduct.
- Did not take adequate steps to confirm that the FFNS conduct was properly investigated and affected clients were properly remediated.
- Took a misguided approach that he could remain within his perceived operational responsibilities (which did not involve direct client contact or the provision of financial advice) rather than involve himself in the compliance and reporting obligations of Crown Wealth, and that his inaction and inattentiveness to these obligations were a serious lapse in judgement.
- Demonstrated a lack of professionalism and competence, and a failure to act with the diligence expected of a director of a financial services licensee.
The banning took effect from 23 October 2025 and has been recorded on ASIC’s banned and disqualified register.
He has the right to appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision.
This is the fourth individual action taken in regard to Crown Wealth and Lighthouse Partners.
In July, ASIC announced it had banned director, shareholder and financial adviser of Lighthouse Partners Kiriley Roper (also known as Kiriley Suckling) from providing financial services for 10 years.
The regulator also banned Andrew Moore, who was previously a director, responsible manager and head of compliance at Crown Wealth Group, for three years.
Earlier this month, ASIC banned former Lighthouse Partners financial adviser and director Timothy Archibald from providing financial services for 10 years.
I categorically reject ASIC’s decision and the basis upon which the banning order has been issued.
Crown AFSL spent significant resources and costs— in excess of several hundred thousand dollars — defending what was, at its core, a technical breach reporting matter. The issue related to a small number of administrative cases out of approximately 15,000 serviced across our national network of around 50 advisers. Importantly, no clients suffered any financial loss.
Despite our consistent record of compliance and cooperation, ASIC chose to escalate this issue in a way that appears disproportionate to its substance. Based on our experience, the regulator engaged legal and barrister resources several times greater than ours — likely spending multiples of what we did — to pursue a matter that had no consumer detriment and which we worked transparently to resolve.
At the very same time ASIC dedicated countless hours and taxpayer-funded resources — including adviser levy contributions — to chasing our small AFSL over technicalities, the regulator appeared to have taken its eye off far more significant failures. Large-scale collapses such as the First Guardian Master Fund and the Shield Master Fund, together resulting in losses exceeding $1 billion to tens of thousands of Australian investors, demonstrate where the regulator’s focus should have been.
Every adviser under Crown AFSL can attest that we operated with transparency, integrity, and strict adherence to process. Our focus was always on protecting clients and ensuring compliant advice — the hallmarks of a responsible licensee.
This experience highlights the urgent need for greater transparency and proportionality in regulatory decision-making. Enforcement should focus on genuine misconduct and systemic risk — not technicalities that destroy reputations and livelihoods while failing to protect a single investor.
I remain proud of the culture and standards we upheld at Crown AFSL and continue to advocate for balanced, accountable regulation that genuinely serves the best interests of Australian consumers and advisers alike.
Brendan
I’m not surprised one bit. ASIC are a disgraceful, ideologically driven organisation. Their staff have a massive chip on their shoulder. They are jealous of financial advisers and the private sector in general. They do everything they can to wrap us up in red-tape to destroy productivity in our sector. They are raving lefties who believe every Australian should have their super invested in a left-wing, union-controlled super fund. ASIC is the poster child of everything that is wrong in our country, with bloated bureaucracies strangling every part of our society, driving up inflation and damaging our prosperity.