Mr McMaster believes Dover was provided with negligent advice on its client protection policy and, following the Federal Court’s ‘guilty’ decision last year, warned that he was considering action against a number of law firms who signed off on it.
Mr McMaster has now launched that action – and one of the firms has addressed the case.
“We’ve got confidence in the services we deliver and confidence in the services we delivered to Dover,” Holley Nethercote managing partner Grant Holley told ifa.
“We’ve also got confidence in our legal system, which of course is designed to ensure that Dover has an opportunity to make its allegations and we have an opportunity to answer those allegations.”
Holley Nethercote will be filing a defence in the coming days addressing the allegations.
“We’re pleased to have the opportunity to answer the allegations that have sort of been made through the media and that we’ve not felt we’ve been able to respond to without waiving client privilege,” Mr Holley said.
“We’re pleased to have the opportunity to defend the matter and have the courts deal with it.
“We look forward to seeing how it all plays out.”
Dover Financial was found guilty of making “false, misleading or deceptive statements” in its client protection policy, with Mr McMaster knowingly concerned. Justice Michael O’Bryan found that the title of the protection policy was “highly misleading” and “an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”.
“The document did not protect clients,” said Justice O’Bryan. “To the contrary, it purported to strip clients of rights and consumer protections they enjoyed under the law.”
ASIC brought the case against Dover and Mr McMaster, saying that the client protection policy “contained false and misleading representations as to the rights and protections available to clients; created a significant imbalance in Dover’s and its authorised representatives’ rights and obligations compared with those of clients; and sought to protect the interests of Dover and its authorised representatives by avoiding liability to clients for poor financial advice”.
Dover was the first conviction to come out of the royal commission, and remains one of the most high-profile to date.
Mr McMaster declined to comment.
He must be busy chasing the financial advisors for there fees which they haven’t paid him
Long time since we have heard from Terry.
Terry’s threat to take on the law firms appears to be all piss and wind. Can’t wait till Monday 1 June to hear the penalties to be handed down in the Federal Court.
When will Terry return the fees and commission back to financial advisors for misleading them that his licenses were all aboveboard
Only 4 weeks to go before Terry gets his fines dish out. Can’t wait. Will Terry turn or is he to busy hiding blaming everyone else
terry won’t allow it.
he is one of the most important persons.
Hi Terry, it’s good to see you! How has it been?
Mr McMaster declined to comment. He didn’t pull that fainting trick again did he?
When are we going to see Terry turn up to court in person. He keeps running away
Only person in trouble is Terry McMaster. Trying to rope other people in to take the blame for his greed
Seems simple enough.
Did each law firm identify Dover’s client protection policy as a troubled document?
If they did not they are in trouble. If they did they are not in trouble.
And God forbid that Advisers protect themselves from frivolous claims by clients like every other industry & profession do. If the government/ASIC had regulated any other industry in this country in the same way they do Fin Services, the industries wouldn’t function. Why do they get away with doing it to us? Oh that’s right, we’re not unionised like the others, therefore we get no support from Labour.
Did you know that most of the ASIC Commissioners and Lawyers (EG Danielle Press, John Price, Kell, Medcraft, etc) were all ex-industry super fund or union lawyers! I did a lot of research into that morally corrupted agency and what I uncovered on a lot of these people was quite frightening and comes as no surprise as to why they have such an evil agenda against retail IFA’s and wealth managers.
Please don’t occupy any hospital beds again like you did during the rc. Victoria’s hero doctors and nurses do not need to deal with cowards.
That’s what Rod’s family here in Thailand say too
I can’t wait to sit in on another Court action where Terry gets done over.
It’s funny how Terry is always right and everyone else is wrong. Unfortunately the courts keeps finding Terry at fault
Like or hate McMaster, he is doing us all a favour. Why not litigate? Indeed.
I am an ex-Dover compliance employee. Each year Dover engaged a different AFSL expert law firm to review its compliance processes. Five law firms reviewed the CPP. None warned Dover of its shortcomings. Everyone at Dover thought it was OK.
you would no McMaster well. he isn’t going to lose.
He hasn’t done that well so far… Which law firm is he using, Dennis Denuto & Associates?
it’s the vibe
Your comments reframe this debate.
So at least three law firms claiming extensive
expertise and experience with AFSL matters advised Dover they had no concerns with the Client Protection Policy.
Its changing my view. Casts Dover in a different light.
you can this is Terry, this is the only comment without speling and gramer errars
hello, how are things n Vietnam?
No doubt Mr Holley and Mr Nethercote advised Dover that:
1. “the title of the protection policy was “highly misleading” and “an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak”
2. “The document did not protect clients. To the contrary, it purported to strip clients of rights and consumer protections they enjoyed under the law.” and
3. “the client protection policy contained false and misleading representations as to the rights and protections available to clients; created a significant imbalance in Dover’s and its authorised representatives’ rights and obligations compared with those of clients; and sought to protect the interests of Dover and its authorised representatives by avoiding liability to clients for poor financial advice”.
And Mr Holley and Mr Nethercote have absolutely nothing to worry about…. Nothing at all to worry about.
the thing with terry that most people don’t realize is he is grisly. he will wear you down. he doesn’t give up. he is unrelenting. he will destroy others and himself in the process as it is already self-evident to prove himself right. sometimes the best thing to do is to lose and move on.
terry, you made a lot of money, enjoy spending it (after the lockdown is over). become a mentor to financial planners and share your experiences gained over your time with up and coming advisers that would be positive. instead of heading into one battle and another.
lol he’s banned from the financial services industry completely… Him mentoring the industry would put him in breach. It’s cute you think there’s a life for you after being banned though.
Well if he received poor legal advice then he has every right to take them on, especially seeing as it has caused the loss of his business. The reason for seeking independent legal advice is to avoid this from happening, surely…
most people charged and jailed claim to be innocent, so this is not unusual. In the eyes of Mr McMaster he feels that he is being picked on and is not guilty. Do not know the man, just been in this game for 40+ years.
Yes and he is very deceiving person.
This was/is/remains the greatest injustice perpetrated by Asic in it’s history. Regardless of the thoughts on the man behind the business, my understanding is that prior to the royal commission ASIC had already dealt with the Protection Policy issue (which they knew had been signed off on by legal firms supposedly specialising in financial services) by making Dover ‘re-word’ it to Information Policy.
Therefore, the fact appears to be that Dover was shut down for getting a single word wrong, that no-one in the industry compliance circles that were relied upon had flagged. Says something about the lack of any checks and balances within the regulator to understand the effort afforded to be compliant.
This is why we should all be scared. Particularly about the new debacle of Early Release of Super.
McMaster is a demonstration to all licensees that even with the best processes (external professional oversight) it means nothing when it comes down to it, you can still be shut down.
In a way, thank god for Coronavirus, and the turn down in heat. In a way it is unfortunate that it did not happen sooner, as it may likely have stopped the kangaroo court which was the Royal Commission into Banking…..strike that…. the Royal Commission into anything but Banking, chaired by a pensioner.
As politicians and many others in the industry are now understanding, there is a void between advised and non advised clients. That’s right ASIC, we actually do do good by our clients and are valued. We also go to extraordinary lengths to do it in the way you feel we should. Unfortunately, you continually move the goal posts, and it is likely to still depend on the way the wind blows on the day, if/when you come knocking.
Out of every case I have read about, this is the one that really makes me scared for my business and my families future. There appears no real case for closure, rectification appeared to have been completed, and I am unaware any client was impacted.
This is what we should all be focusing on instead of slinging mud at one another, so please do not chastise me for commenting anonymously, as I do not wish to find myself within the cross hairs of the bear, praying the wind is in the right direction.
Well said
Couldn’t agree more with this person’s comments – be invisible to everyone and everything except your clients!
“[i]The shrewd person sees the danger and conceals himself, But the inexperienced keep right on going and suffer the consequence[/i][i][/i]”
“thank god for Coronavirus” – McMaster (2020)
I was an AR under Dover way back in the day and jumped ship after 14 short but very challenging months. I don’t have anything bad to say about Terry but nothing good either, he used to enjoy playing God with advisers lives and businesses and would be very quick to terminate AR’s if they had a difference of opinion in the way he did or said things relating to the AFS. I believe that karma gets everyone in the end and maybe that’s what happened here, only this time ASIC and the Royal Commission (specifically Mark Costello) got to play God with Terry!
I was also an AR of Dover and for a similar time period to yours and my experience was very similar. he had a very cavalier attitude. He had very little respect for any of his AR’s or for that matter anyone else in the financial services arena.
he thought people were jealous of him, in the short period I was there his number of reps went from 110 to high 300’s I knew then it was time to leave, the best decision I ever made. I also told a few other advisers to do the same but they did not see the issues in the same way I did and regretted their decision afterwards.
what is most pleasing about all this is, this is a fight between lawyers so we will just enjoy that.
what we need to do as an industry is to incite and aggravate lawyers against each other so that they are all busy in legal entanglements with each other. so happy right now.
Haha could not happen to a nicer guy. What a rogue he is and has been for years, corrupt as they come.
Don’t hide behind a fake name, if you have proof man up or shut up, you post shows you to be a coward
Do you know him? He’s the most gentle, tender soul I’ve met.
If he was as corrupt as you say, he would have overseen the taking of hundreds of millions from clients without providing them any service.
Seems you have got it back to front.
Seems McMaster will end up with a big cheque
Or bankrupt?