ASIC has banned Melbourne-based financial adviser Neil McPherson from providing financial services for four years.
The ban also prohibits McPherson from controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business, or from performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business.
ASIC said it took the action after forming the view McPherson provided advice to certain clients that was not in their best interests.
According to ASIC, McPherson recommended that those clients invest the majority of their superannuation into the high growth, growth, or balanced classes of the Shield Master Fund, which ASIC characterised as high-risk investment options. At the relevant time, McPherson was authorised by MWL Financial Services Pty Ltd.
In announcing the ban, ASIC said it had reason to believe McPherson is not a fit and proper person to provide financial services, is not competent to participate in the Australian financial services industry, and is likely to contravene a financial services law.
The Shield Master Fund collapsed after a series of regulatory interventions and a winding-up process that unfolded over 2024 and 2025. ASIC estimates hundreds of millions of dollars of retirement savings were invested in the fund, with many investors seeing their balances erode or become inaccessible when the fund was wound up.
