Regulator bans adviser from another UGC/Shield-linked firm

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has handed down a four-year ban to Gold Coast-based financial adviser Andrew Rankin.

Under the ban, he is prohibited from providing any financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business, and performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business until August 2029.

ASIC found that Rankin, who was an authorised representative of the now defunct Next Generation Advice from 13 September 2021 to 11 November 2022, failed to act in the best interests of a number of his clients and gave inappropriate advice.

Next Generation Advice is among the advice licensees caught up in the failure of the Shield Master Fund, however it also has ties to United Global Capital (UGC), which entered into voluntary administration in July 2024 following the Federal Court freezing its assets a month earlier.

UGC director Joel Hewish was subsequently banned for 10 years, which he unsuccessfully appealed.

In October 2024, ASIC cancelled Next Generation Advice’s AFSL after the Queensland Supreme Court ordered the company be wound up on 23 August 2024.

In cancelling Next Gen’s licence, ASIC required the firm to remain a member of AFCA until 17 October 2025.

According to the regulator, Rankin recommended clients set up an SMSF and invest most of their retirement savings into the Global Capital Property Fund Limited (GCPF) and the Pivotal Diversified Fund.

In a review of Rankin’s advice, ASIC found he failed to act in the best interests of a number of his clients as he failed to “identify the clients’ objectives and needs by accepting a request to establish a SMSF and rollover their current superannuation into the new SMSF, investing the majority of their capital into GCPF and Pivotal”.

Additionally, he failed to identify the subject matter of advice and conduct a reasonable investigation of the financial products that might meet their needs.

ASIC found it “was not reasonable to conclude the advice Mr Rankin gave was appropriate, had he satisfied the duty to act in the clients’ best interests”, because both GCPV and Pivotal were “speculative, illiquid investments with no historical return data”.

“The advice placed clients in more complex and onerous SMSF environments compared to their previous APRA regulated superannuation funds, and the advice resulted in significant fee increases,” ASIC added.

The regulator also found Rankin’s statements of advice included projections that were misleading and deceptive.

“Clients were referred to Mr Rankin after completing a ‘superannuation health check’ with another Authorised Representative of Next Generation Advice,” ASIC said.

“ASIC found Mr Rankin reasonably ought to have known there was a conflict of interest and jeopardised client retirement savings by facilitating the transfer of most of their savings from APRA regulated funds to highly speculative and illiquid investments in a more complex and onerous SMSF environment.”

The GCPF was a related property investment company and authorised representative of UGC, and was ordered to be wound up in October 2024.

The Pivotal Diversified Fund was an open-ended unlisted registered managed investment scheme that was open to retail investors.

On 5 January 2023, ASIC issued an interim DDO stop order to the fund’s responsible entity, Vasco Responsible Entity Services Limited, which prevented it from dealing in Pivotal’s interests in relation to retail clients, giving a PDS for Pivotal to a retail client, and providing financial product advice to a retail client in relation to an interest in Pivotal.

Australian Funds Management Group – of which UGC’s Joel Hewish was a director – was the investment manager for Pivotal.

In Pivotal’s product disclosure statement from January 2023, which included a letter from Hewish, it detailed that the fund “aims to generate the Target Return by investing in Global Capital Property Fund Limited, UGC Global Alpha Fund, UGC Platinum Alpha Fund, UGC Private Equity Fund and third party investments selected by the Investment Manager”.

It also claimed to invest “at least 80 per cent of its assets in highly liquid investments”, which is in stark contrast to ASIC’s description of the fund as speculative and illiquid.

In Pivotal’s annual report for the year to 30 June 2023, it disclosed a total return since inception of 0.00 per cent – a far cry from the target return of 13 per cent per annum.

ASIC said its investigation into the matters connected to GCPF and the Shield Master Fund is continuing.

The banning order took effect from 14 August 2025, and Rankin has the right to appeal the decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal.

The action also follows ASIC banning four MWL Financial Services advisers in July for a period of between four and eight years.