The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has suspended the Australian financial services licence of MW Planning for failing to replace its responsible manager after ASIC banned its existing manager, Robert John Tohill, for conduct linked to the Shield Master Fund.
Tohill was also the responsible manager for MWL Financial Services, a firm which ASIC has alleged provided inappropriate financial advice to clients to invest their superannuation into the Shield Master Fund.
Shield was an investment scheme that collapsed after around AD$480m (£238m) of investor funds were funnelled into high-risk property developments. Both MWL Financial Services and MW Planning are subsidiaries of MWL Financial Group.
ASIC banned Tohill from providing any financial services for five years in August after it found he was on the investment committee that continued to evaluate and approve the Shield Master Fund.
ASIC also found Tohill approved statements of advice that contained “false and misleading information about the performance history of Shield” and did not disclose information about MWL’s arrangements with lead generators.
ASIC’s investigation found that between May 2022 and February 2024, nine MWL representatives advised around 556 clients to invest roughly AD$114m of their superannuation into Shield.
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court previously said: “ASIC will seek to allege that MWL and Imperial [another company] were involved in a project which resulted in the superannuation of hundreds of Australians being invested into a high-risk scheme.”
As well as failing to appoint a new responsible manager, MW Planning failed to lodge required financial statements and an auditor’s opinion for the 2024 financial year and did not report those failures to ASIC. The firm is now banned until 8 June 2026.
