The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has suspended the Australian financial services licence of MW Planning until 8 June 2026 for failing to appoint a new responsible manager after ASIC banned its existing manager, Robert John Tohill.
ASIC banned Tohill for five years from providing any financial services in August this year after it found he was on the investment committee that continued to evaluate and approve the Shield Master Fund, an investment scheme that collapsed after around AD$480m in investor funds were funnelled into high-risk property developments.
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 also found that MW Planning had failed to lodge required financial statements and an auditor’s opinion for the 2024 financial year and did not report those failures to ASIC.
ML Planning is a subsidiary of MWL Financial Group, which also owns MWL Financial Services. ASIC has alleged that MWL Financial Services provided inappropriate financial advice to clients to invest their superannuation into the Shield Master Fund.
It 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.”
