ASIC seeks to place Australian Fiduciaries in receivership

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

17 June 2025

A managed investment company which has been the subject of Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) scrutiny for the past five years is now the subject of a regulator application seeking Federal Court preservation orders and the appointment of receivers.

ASIC announced yesterday that it had sought the orders in the Federal Court against Australian Fiduciaries and numerous related entities.

In doing so, it said it understood that about 600 Australian retail investors had invested approximately $160 million in managed investment schemes offered by Australian Fiduciaries since February 202, predominantly through their self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs).

In noted that Australian Fiduciaries had ceased distributing units in its schemes in September, 2023.

The ASIC announcement said Australian Fiduciaries has failed to lodge audited financial statements or audited compliance plan reports for its registered managed investment schemes for FY2024 or the first half of FY2025.

“ASIC understands that it has also failed to keep investors updated on the status of their investments since May 2024,” the regulator said.

ASIC is investigating concerns around:

• inadequate management of conflicts of interest
• the ways investors were sold units in the schemes and how their funds were ultimately invested into a complex group of entities controlled by related parties
• suspected failure by Australian Fiduciaries to conduct regular valuations of its schemes, and
• loss of value in the underlying assets.

Concerns about Australian Fiduciaries have resulted in adverse findings by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and in 2022 ASIC issued an interim stop orders preventing the company from offering or distributing three funds to retail investors.

As recently as Thursday last week, Australian Fiduciaries issued an investor update in which it referred to delays to the filing of audit reports to “a number of extrinsic factors; in particular, the unexpected voluntary administration and/or liquidation of a service provider”.

Any unpaid AFCA determinations are expected to have implications for the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR).