Moving away from its usual process, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has released complaints data for not just the second half of FY2024–25 but also provided the details for July and August this year.
Topping the list for the combined period within the financial advice sector is United Global Capital, which had seen a flurry of complaints ahead of its membership of the complaints scheme being terminated on 31 May.
Following AFCA reinstating its membership last week for a further six months due to the potential that First Guardian Master Fund investors missed their opportunity to complain, that number will likely climb in coming months.
Also seeing a significant number of complaints is Sequoia subsidiary InterPrac Financial Planning, which has taken a significant hit over the first two months of FY25–26.
During FY24–25, the licensee saw 125 complaints, putting it firmly in second place for most advice complaints over the period, however, the two months that followed have seen 298 complaints made against it, taking the total over 14 months to 423.
The significant ramp-up in complaint volumes is unlikely to abate as numbers are released for subsequent months, with InterPrac having significant exposure to the Shield and First Guardian collapses through its former authorised representatives Venture Egg, Reilly Financial, and Miller Wealth Group.
In Sequoia’s full-year results announcement in early August, the firm said there had been a total of $22 million in complaints against InterPrac relating to Shield and First Guardian.
“This represents InterPrac’s potential exposure prior to any assessment of the merits of each complaint, and before consideration of any recoveries or offsets,” Sequoia said at the time.
With the claim number already growing from this point, that figure could be considerably higher before even considering any of the other thousands of potential client complaints related to the fund failures.
Other licensees caught up in the Shield and First Guardian scandal also feature on the new release, with Financial Services Group Australia receiving 97 complaints and MWL Financial Services seeing 70 across the combined 14-month period.
The AFCA Datacube would normally only update every six months and is now current to 31 August 2025.
From October 2025, the AFCA Datacube will be updated every six months; however, the complaints authority announced on Wednesday that it had moved to monthly releases.
“The change will provide more timely insights for consumers, small businesses, and financial firms,” AFCA said.
“AFCA’s Datacube is an interactive public database of complaints about financial firms and includes all firms that received four or more complaints in the past 12 months. The information supports AFCA’s vision of an Australia free from financial disputes by sharing transparent and accessible data.
“It helps member firms benchmark their performance and enables consumers and small businesses to make informed choices about financial products and services.”
Link to AFCA complaints datacube: https://data.afca.org.au/at-a-glance/
FSGA with almost 100 complaints is the other AFSL which Ferras Merhi ran whilst also being licensed under Interprac and sold both First Guardian and Shield products through his call centre business model. How did he get that license and with it now closed under administration, who will pick up the damage especially with many of those advisers also being under Interprac. Where they even crossed endorsed? We are all still waiting for ASIC to show us some intentions but in the meantime, Interprac are telling their advisers that ASIC have no issues with them and their robust compliance focused supervision of advisers and if clients of Interprac advisers are not happy with the negative media attention, they can be easily moved to the other license owned by parent company Sequioa.
Plenty of peoples super money at risk, mine included. Worked 3@ years and now risk having nothing to live on
Macquarie has admitted to breaking the Corporations Act. That has resulted in damages to super balances. AFCA is going to get a massive wave of complaints against Macquarie for the inadequate compensation they’ve paid.
Equity Trustees will be next.
The misconduct by these super fund trustees is appalling, which is why they are being sued!
Worst Macquarie further eroding these payments when transferred out from Macquarie Wrap to other super funds. ASIC better get involve in checking how Macquarie handled these payments. They’re charging fees!!!!
I dare say UGC will maintain it’s no.1 spot for sometime with their membership reinstated.
Does anyone remember the Van Eyk Blueprint fiasco? The part where the underlying fund manager had invested money into local newspapers in the UK, and VanEyk, Macquariea and ASIC knew about it, and did nothing until the fund stopped redemptions? Crazy coincidence.
Even with the complaints pile growing they are still pointing their fingers at everyone else.
Probably just the tip of the iceberg for Interprac, FSGA and MWL complaints. If on average, each client is claiming $100k, and 75% of them are successful, then this would be over $30m for Interprac. I hope Interprac, FSGA and MWL all have high quality PI cover.
Empathy personified. Watch out for the stones.
i wonder whether interprac will be able to find an insurer to provide pi going forward? it does sound like curtains for this business.
And, of course, good advisers end up picking up the tab, either through the CSLR or through much higher PI premiums going forward. This is an eff-up of epic proportions. And while the AFSL and the advisers are clearly wrong, once again ASIC is refusing to accept any responsibility. It’s the same tune over and over again, from Storm Financial to Van Eyk Blue Print to First Guardian; ASIC should know – and often is outright *told* that things aren’t right – and just ignores it and sits on their hands because chasing advisers over a missed ROA for a $1,000 super switch does so much more for financial regulation and confidence, than, you know, actual *regulation*.
But the ceo of interprac said they did nothing wrong
If Interprac get away with $30m, this would be considered cheap. I expect this number to significantly increase, and maybe into the thousands. $30m could quickly become $300m.
The Government needs to put legislation in place so Sequoia can’t put Interprac into administration and move the advisers to a new AFSL – and leaving the CSLR to pick up the tab.
The average claim will be well above $150k. Easily $250k to $300k. Not to mention the opportunity losses, interest and civil / damages / claims. Interprac’s CEO must have sleepless nights. Not a single customer has seen his so called “information pack to customers.” They struggle to respond to customer requests. They ignore responding to complaints. They’re in deep trouble…
Do you think that an AR of there’s could have a criminal record? And do you think if advisers who bring in substantial revenue who run an MDA off a spreadsheet will be reprimanded by the licensee?
What’s the complaint rate among the various licensees’ advisers?
(I’m guessing some rotten advisers are responsible for multiple complaints due to their dodgy lead generation)
We all know how this works. Sequoia phoenixes InterPrac and all the complaints feed through to the CSLR and all good hard working honest advisers foot the bill. It’s is called the Dixon’s play, fully endorsed by ASIC and APRA because they have done absolutely nothing to stop it from happening time after time.