ASIC bans adviser for 6 years over UGC advice

Yet another financial adviser has been banned by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) related to the United Global Capital Pty fund.

ASIC said it had banned Milutin Petrovic for six years from providing financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in the carrying on a financial services business.

He is appealing to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

ASIC found that Petrovic failed key advice obligations when recommending clients to invest their retirement savings into financial products related to his licensee, United Global Capital Pty Ltd (UGC).

It said Petrovic provided advice to his clients which involved setting up a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) and then investing a significant portion of their retirement savings in the Global Capital Property Fund Limited (GCPF), a related property investment company now in liquidation.

ASIC found that Petrovic asserted to clients that he was only providing limited advice as they sought ‘execution only advice’, despite telling clients he was required to act in their best interests and providing comparisons to the client regarding their individual existing superannuation fund/s and the recommended SMSF and GCPF investment. The comparison included demonstrating to clients that they would be so many dollars better off by switching superannuation investment.

Petrovic was found to have:

• not acted in his clients’ best interests
• not provided advice that was appropriate
• not prioritised his clients’ interests ahead of UGC, his licensee’s, interests
• made statements that were likely to be misleading, and
• gave defective Statements of Advice.

ASIC also found that by purporting to limit the advice in the manner he did, Petrovic provided clients with Statements of Advice that were defective and therefore engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct regarding acting in clients’ best interests and estimates of future return representations of GCPF.

Petrovic has applied to the Administrative Review Tribunal for a review of ASIC’s decision. Petrovic had also applied for stay and confidentiality orders and that application has been withdrawn. The substantive review application was heard on 30 June and 1 and 2 July 2025. The decision has been reserved.

The banning took effect from 15 January 2025, was stayed on an interim basis on 28 February 2025, and resumed on 26 March 2025 when that stay was dissolved.