Adviser’s appeal results in longer prohibition

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

13 May 2026

In what represents a precedent, an attempt by a UGC financial adviser to have the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) review a two-year prohibition on him providing financial advice has resulted in him receiving a longer (3 year) prohibition.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said the man, Stephen Rogers, sought to appeal the initial prohibition decision of the Financial Services and Credit Panel (FSCP) but ASIC provided further evidence resulting in the ART extending the prohibition by a further twelve months.

It said that as a result of the ART’s decision, Rogers is prohibited from being registered with ASIC during the prohibition period and is prohibited from providing personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products during that period.

ASIC noted that the FSCP had previously made a registration prohibition order against Mr Rogers for a two-year period.  Rogers sought review of that decision in the ART.

The Tribunal has now set aside the FSCP decision and made a three-year registration prohibition order.

The FSCP had found that Rogers, while authorised by United Global Capital Pty Ltd (UGC), gave non-compliant advice to a client and acted in a way that was misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive.

In particular, the FSCP found that Rogers inappropriately used:

• a scaled advice model that excluded consideration of the suitability of establishing a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) and the suitability of the SMSF investing into products related to Mr Rogers’ licensee, and
• a rate of return in the benefit comparison in his statement of advice.

In the ART, ASIC provided evidence of similar breaches in relation to additional UGC client files and sought orders imposing a longer registration prohibition period.

The registration prohibition took effect from 7 December 2023. On 3 May 2024, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal granted Rogers a stay of the registration prohibition, subject to a condition that he does not provide scoped advice for the duration of the stay.

On 7 April 2026, the ART set aside the FSCP decision and imposed a three year registration prohibition period. On 24 April 2026, the ART ordered that the registration prohibition end on 27 November 2028, taking into account the earlier non-registration period between 7 December 2023 and 2 May 2024.