Former Dixon Advisory clients might be eligible for compensation

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has said that former clients of Dixon Advisory and Superannuation Services Pty Limited may be eligible for compensation under a potential future Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) but they will need to take action as soon as possible.

ASIC said it would be contacting former clients of Dixon Advisory to inform them that if they believed they had suffered loss as a result of the misconduct of Dixon Advisory and/or their former Dixon Advisory financial adviser in providing financial advice, they should make a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

However, if Dixon Advisory’s AFCA membership ceased then no further complaints could be accepted as complaints may only be made against firms who are members of AFCA. Therefore, complaints against Dixon Advisory should be made as soon as possible, the regulator warned.

“We encourage former clients of Dixon Advisory to monitor their mailboxes, inboxes, and spam folder for correspondence from ASIC. If a former client of Dixon Advisory has already lodged their complaint with AFCA there is no need for them to do anything further at this time,” ASIC said in a press release.

ASIC also said that lodging a complaint with AFCA was a necessary step for clients to preserve their possible eligibility under a potential future CSLR. However, even if a complaint was lodged with AFCA, a compensation outcome was not guaranteed due to a number of factors, including that:

• A CSLR has not yet been established, and so the scheme’s final parameters remain uncertain at this time;
• Dixon Advisory is currently in voluntary administration, and the outcome of the administration process could affect clients’ eligibility to compensation; and
• Whether or not a former client of Dixon Advisory is eligible for compensation will depend on the individual circumstances of the advice that they were given, as well as the scope and operation of a CSLR.