Dover Financial Advisers boss Terry McMaster has hit out at the corporate regulator, believing that both he and his collapsed business have been unfairly victimised by ASIC.
In an exclusive interview, Mr McMaster told ifa that Dover requested and co-operated fully with an ASIC audit, which he claims is in stark contrast to “what we now know of other AFSL audits”.
“So, why is Dover, which requested its audit, undertook to meet any ASIC concerns, co-operated 100 per cent, did not cause any loss to a client, and remediated immediately and effectively once it knew of ASIC’s concerns, being dragged through this process, with its abundant, long and glossy media releases?” he asked.
“Why did ASIC force Dover to shut down, but not take similar actions against the bank AFSLs and the AMP AFSLs? Why did ASIC try to give the impression it had nothing to do with Dover shutting down when, very aggressively, and in writing, it did?
“Generally, ASIC’s treatment of Dover is completely inconsistent with its treatment of other AFSLs and other financial institutions who have done much worse things.”
The Dover boss highlighted ASIC’s inaction against CBA and AMP. Representatives of both institutions have appeared before the royal commission, where significant misconduct was uncovered. For example, both CBA and AMP acknowledged they were charging life insurance premiums to dead people.
“Also compare ASIC’s treatment of Dover with ASIC’s treatment of institutions such as AMP, for example,” Mr McMaster said, pointing to a letter by ASIC’s Tim Mullaly to AMP outlining the regulator’s concerns about AMP’s failure to co-operate with its audit.
“Compare ASIC and Dover with ASIC and Beacon, where serious, probably criminal, circumstances have been discovered in late 2016 and early 2017 but it appears ASIC did not refer Beacon to the royal commission.”
Mr McMaster believes ASIC gave information about the Dover’s CPP and other matters to the royal commission before it raised its concerns with Dover on 22 March 2018.
“After 22 March 2018, Dover did not dispute ASIC’s concerns, and immediately remediated the CPP within two weeks, or by early April 2018,” he said.
“Compared to CBA where $3.7 billion was raised in breach of the Corporations Act with no remediation required by ASIC and no penalties were required by ASIC, although eventually the CBA recommended a penalty of $1.25 million.”
More to come.
ASIC is a total joke. Completely and utterly useless. I reported phoenix activity to ASIC where a man had run no less than four entities into the ground, all trading with the same business name at the same physical location and same staff… He racked up over $3M in debt amongst the organisations. ASICS response? “There is insufficient evidence to prove phoenix activity”
Although he comes across as an arrogant prick McMuffin has a point. On the one hand you have the big institutions which have charged fees to dead clients, outright lied to ASIC on multiple occasions, provided a non-independent ‘independent’ report, run a ‘slushy’ fund without an afsl and whose clients have actually LOST money through incompetent advice provided by their aligned salesforce. AND YET THEY GET TO KEEP THEIR AFSL. Compare that to the treatment of Dover where I understand not a single client has lost any money due to the advice provided by their well educated FAs. Not to mention the fact that Dover have tried to engage with ASIC on numerous instances but have had no response from the regulator. It appears to be one set of rules if you have very deep pockets and another set of rules for everyone else. ASIC’s treatment of Dover basically amounts to BULLYING and should not be tolerated in this day and age. The behaviour you walk past is the behaviour you accept.
Well said!! Can you please organize a few press conferences and start getting the message across.
Yo, man
(Yo)
Open up, man
(Yeah, what do you want, man?)
The Royal Commission just caught me
(You let her catch you?)
I don’t know how all of this happened
(With who?)
The client protection policy, ya know?
Man, I don’t know what to do
(Say it wasn’t you)
Alright…
Terry for president when we eventually become a republic
When the investigation starts to really get underway with McMaster they will find many areas to ask questions. Did the penny not drop at the Royal Commission re his staff and why they are mostly from Vietnam. I am sure he pays the correct money but then charges big amount for rent and food. They are housed 3/4 per room in accommodation own by him. If they step out of line they go straight back to Vietnam.
Bill, you should be careful not to slander. You may find they were mostly from Vietnam because they lived in Vietnam.
Careful what you say there Bill… The Vietnamese staff worked at the office in Ho Chi Minh City. I believe they were backed up by about 30 Australian staff at the Melbourne office.
The Vietnam office was responsible for a lot of admin work. Outsourcing is used by most large Australian organizations,Telstra etc.
please rebut but please do not threaten. people already dislike you intensely terry do your self a favor and stop threatening
Sorry, I wasn’t threatening anyone. I noticed Bill was making some crazy assertions.
Bill should stick to the facts. The facts being about why Dover was shut down and why the banks who have lost millions of clients money remain open. I just didn’t know where he was heading with references to Dover’s Vietnamese staff.
By the way, it’s not Terry, my name is Justin.
Cheers
Justin = Fainting ∴ Guilt
Careful – I hope for your sake,
you are correct in what you say Bill?
This is Dover’s Vietnam office: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlvGWqd5kVk&t=41s
You mean this WAS Dover’s Vietnam office, lol.
How many complaints has Terry McMaster made against other lawyers and accountants this year.
Why do you ask?
I wonder if other cases against Terry involve missing money. Maybe Super money. More is going to be revealed soon
This has nothing to do with missing money. You sir are just trying to smear his name with unsubstantiated claims. This is all about ASIC’s bias towards the bank owned AFSLs.
Why does Terry not come clean and tell everyone how many other court cases are going on against him and why.
Seems like you know the answer Bill, so why don’t you tell us.
Sorry Bill but you don’t really know what you are talking about. I was with Dover for 5 + years and this court case you are referring to is from some advisers that were given 365 days credit on their Dealer group fee payments, when Dover was closed down their fees become payable, some advisers think they don’t have to pay the money, which is very naive. Credit was given so the account is still payable. Trouble is these people probably don’t have the money and they think by suing Terry they can get away with not paying their debt.
that’s one of the mistakes i can see Terry made, to authorize people who cannot afford to pay $25k pa. some financial adviser they are, not to be able to pay, and then sue someone when afterwards. idiots.
those of you doing that, you don’t belong in my profession, please go somewhere else
The 365 days credit was to help start up young Advisers get established financially. Once Dover did it for a few it had to offer it to all. Let’s hang the guy for being kind and supporting young advisers to get ahead.
those losers are suing him now, i am empathetic to terry’s position, he was kind, that was his mistake. did you read my post retard?
Again IFA.. why moderate comments when you let comments such as this through? It appears the only comments you moderate are those containing any negativity towards IFA and your moderating process (including this one).. not very independent.
McMaster has taken out that many people. He only is concern for himself.
I think more is to come out of this investigation. McMaster is not telling the whole truth. Why is he hiding his assets at a great rate of knots. The only person who thinks he has done nothing wrong is Terry. Get real here.
This isn’t American politics. Let’s stick to the facts.
ASIC claim the cpp was deceptive (the clauses in the contract were not illegal, especially when read in conjunction, as QC Costello appeared unable to comprehend). Then understand that McMaster requested the ASIC audit ( one year before ASIC claim “they” commenced it) and requested multiple meetings with ASIC at multiple time points. McMaster also had high profile firms audit Dover. Then have a think about it. Then look at relative treatment of Dover. I think we have our answers ladies and gentlemen, and Anon’s. Not much room for deliberate deception here.
I wonder if the ATO should consider a thorough audit, including family as well?
They might find transferring of assets around with no stamps paid and sloppy, invalid paperwork? Or they may not. I don’t think he is that sort of guy?
Is ASIC trying to make up for past mistakes by doing to Dover what they should have done much earlier to Storm?
ASIC should be held accountable for their Un scrupulous actions against Dover and Advisers and staff of Dover. It is sickening to watch the big end of town get away with their unconscionable conduct. And someone like Terry Mcmaster is railroaded over just so the big wigs at ASIC can pretend they are doing their job, it is an absolute disgrace
The Royal Commission should be asking why ASIC closed down Dover when there had been no losses and its Consumer policy had been corrected !
I would suggest everyone to watch the ABC interview to understand why he shut down Dover. ASIC may have forgot that Terry is also a lawyer.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/the-business/2018-09-18/interview-with-terry-mcmaster,-former-boss-of/10270328
this man has been treated appallingly. he doesn’t deserve the public beating that he is getting.
this is disgraceful conduct. please stop making ridiculous stupid comments on this forum and berating this man
he and his family have been hurt enough
What about all the families that were exposed with no protection? Reap what you sow
No protection?? Clients had full protection of the law.
Of course they do, the class actions are on foot
[quote=Jack ]
Gees, so many “why’s” seems like mcmaster is happy to chat to you guys but does not care to explain or apoligise to the 406 advisers that were screwed by him.[/quote]
have you not read any of the articles over the past couple of days???
The Banks get out of trouble by just offering ASIC staff a highly paid job working for them. Terry should have said “We’re looking for a Senior Compliance Person…would a starting salary of $200,000 be of interest to you?…how about $300,000…we’re committed to compliance”
Any other western country would call this a bribe. Now you know why the banks get away with it.
I’d be very angry if I was a Dover adviser and be asking questions of the Big Banks to your local MP.
Terry do you have any proof of this? I’m surprised you got a new job at AMP so soon, what a turn around for you. Well done.
I’ve been reading about the possibility of ex-Dover advisers joining a class action again Terry McMaster. I think you have it wrong, the class action should be against ASIC. Every single ex-Dover adviser should joint.
Just to clarify, I left Dover before any of this Royal Commission controversy happened (I retired in 2015). I was an ex-bank adviser and when I joined Dover I couldn’t fault them. So refreshing to work at an AFSL where I didn’t have to flog financial products to my clients. The turnaround times between submitting an SOA for checking and sending to my clients could often blow out a bit, but it was reassuring to know my SOAs were put under the microscope.
A class action against ASIC should seriously be considered.
I believe nulis nab has a date in court with asic ?
Gees, so many “why’s” seems like mcmaster is happy to chat to you guys but does not care to explain or apoligise to the 406 advisers that were screwed by him.
Sorry, I do not get your point. How did McMaster screw 406 advisers?. We now know ASIC closed him down, not vice versa
Jack I was with Dover for 5 plus years Terry did not go out to hurt any of his bAdvisers or his very large staff. The blame lays squarely at ASIC’s feet
I am hopeful that this ill fated move by ASIC will expose the incompetence of ASIC to the public, perhaps we will be able to deduce WHY they havent taken appropriate action against the CBA, Westpac et al and AMP, and other guilty insurance groups. If the big banks are paying millions to ASIC the conflicts galore exist and will finally be exposed
And why have ASIC never looked closely at Industry Funds…
I think all advisers are nearly sick and tired of ASIC targeting the weak and vulnerable to gain political scalps whilst the big end of town have been proved to lie, break the law and clearly fail best interest. Whilst ASIC use our taxes to destroy small business and advisers lives, the banks get a slap over the wrist and a pocket change find or “donation” and continue on with business.
ASIC has a lot to answer for. Taking clients best interest into account, what was to gain by being so aggressive toward Dover, by shutting them down (justified or not) so quickly, to the detriment of tens of thousands of regular people, 400+ Advisers and the Advisers Staff. Their conduct was appalling, especially when taking into account McMasters comments above.
ASIC goes for the organisations that can’t defend themselves and have no “friends” in the right places.
Going down fighting. Futile.
Commissioner Hayne, when does the RC round focussing directly on ASICs mishandling of the Dover matter commence?
And all other matters its mishandled. The amazing thing is that the whole profession is being dragged through the mud in this royal commission, called by the government, when in fact the very body that should have policed it is a government body.
Same with the aged care commission we hear is coming. There are government bodies charged with overseeing and policing this area too, yet once again, it would seem they have failed miserably in their role.
He is probably right. The government needs a massive overhaul of ASIC
Good on ya, Terry. Doing the FPA and AFA’s jobs for them. Much easier to question them when they dont pay your bills…
Whilst without all the information to hand there may be more to Dover’s treatment than just the issue of their CPP, I agree with Terry’s view. When looking at the failings and conduct of other insto, bank backed Licence’s, Dover has been victimised. All of the bank owned Licence’s on the balance of what has happened to Dover would have/should have been forced to shut down also…instead ASIC knows they can get massive penalty fines and remedial payments out of the banks which pours straight into their funding coffers…Given Dover’s CPP was built with the help of several legal firms and not on a whim i also think Terry’s correct that given no clients had been adversely impacted it would be quite easy to remediate this issue??? Simply ask them to retract the policy, amend their complaint resolution policy and process and force advisers to send clients a notice to inform them of the error/change…
… all of which Dover did… including writing to ALL clients.
I’d like to see McMaster start action against ASIC. It is only in court that his claims will be tested.
There appears to be significant amounts of frustration with the regulator in relation to their operations. we need to remember that ASIC and the ACCC are embedded with failed corporate lawyers who are now on the war path for their own vengence against the corporations who essentially found them useless. In essence giving any type of power to these people is dangerous and it could be argued that a complete investigation into the internal processes and procedures of both government agencies should be commenced immediately following the Royal Commission. It is ASIC and the ACCC that have caused an entire industry to implode as their supervision as been futile and sporadic at best.
so beautifully written. you are a poet.
Once the RC and political spotlight was swung into the eyes of the regulator it was a case of we better be seen to be doing something. Much easier to launch into a small entity than battle the Big End of town and their Big Law firms.
He does have a point.
I don’t know enough about Dover to say how good or bad they were but is there any details on how many clients were affected, numbers and financial disadvantage by this CPP? As that seems to be the main reason ASIC is hanging them.
[b]Without doubt Dover has been treated differently to the Banks, AMP, Insurance Co’s, etc. [/b]
Look at the flat out criminal corporate behaviour at the Banks, AMP, Insurance Co’s etc and their continual laughing in ASIC’s face to do it time and again, time and again, time and again………..
[b]Why – Because they know ASIC will not do a thing to them. [/b]
ASIC has a hell of a lot to answer for.
Quick the game is up, we have been caught doing Sweet F##K ALL – Abandon ship Mr KELL !!!!!!!
We all know ASIC needs publicity -it always fails on the big matters so has to target where it might get a win. How many undertakings were dop ins by the ASFL holders rather tha. ASIC investigative ability??
ASIC is a farce. All banks including AMP allied licencees as well as all product (Insurance, Superannuation, Investment) providers should be banned from the business of wealth management until they clear up all mess created & compensate all victims adequately.
In the eyes of the law everybody should be equal.
ASIC should be held accountable for all the omissions & high handed blunders.
Justice is available proportionate to the wealth held!!
Terry has a point. ASIC has a moral obligation to revoke the license of CBA, AMP and Beacon to ensure a level playing field.
It’s because small targets are easy picking for ASIC, they can tell everyone how good they are and put another notch on their gun. A completely incompetent Gov department.
As an adviser I agree crazy sames goes for the treatment of the Industry funds allowing them to charge everyone for intra fund advice (limited financial advice restricted on their own product) then dragging advisers over daggers and knives to try and prove they gave advice at a time which had different record keeping requirements full well knowing that most companies cannot go and prove they gave advice as they simply don’t have the files any more over 7+ years no longer clients, New CRM systems etc and then call it fee for no service.
Yet we have double standards industry funds continue to charge for financial advice sorry I mean intra fund advice/ general advice and don’t need to provide any evidence/ we can rollover super money whenever we want without looking at the clients best interest and we also like to mask out returns usings misleading compare the pair ads we know and major accounting firms know are not right but no law stops us at the moment.
an exclusive interview with ifa … setting aside mainstream national television coverage 12 hours ago…