Yes, but we filtered out Shield, First Guardian says Fiducian

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

2 April 2026

Fiducian Group has acknowledged the licensing conditions imposed on it by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority with a reminder that its governance arrangements succeeded in excluding placing the Shield and First Guardian funds on its platform.

APRA imposed additional and onerous license conditions on Fiducian Portfolio Services alleging “prudential concerns relating to its investment governance frameworks and practices, including oversight of platform investment options made available to members, and its board’s effectiveness in discharging its duties and obligations”.

However, just hours after the APRA announcement Fiducian issued a formal response in which it signalled full compliance while noting that “the aforesaid additional licence conditions do not affect the continuing operations of the Fund or safety of members’ assets”.

It then noted: “Fiducian can confirm that our processes have avoided high-risk products such as, Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund”.

That statement echoed the comments of Fiducian’s executive chair, Indy Singh at Financial Newswire’s recent Advice, Wealth and Super Conference when he noted that the firm had received overtures from the two funds but had opted not to include them on its platforms.

It was lost on no one yesterday that APRA’s announcement regarding the additional license conditions on Fiducian came just days after the company itself reported to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that it had entered into a heads of agreement with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to pay a penalty of $7.3 million in relation to allegedly misleading ESG claims in Product Disclosure Statements (PDSs).

The Fiducian ASX announcement came ahead of any public announcement by ASIC on the status of the court proceedings which had been initiated by regulator in the closing months of last year.

The issues identified by APRA appear to, in part, reflect the vertically integrated nature of Fiducian with the regulator referring to “related party service providers”.

APRA said its review of Fiducian identified concerns in relation to:

• lack of sufficiently rigorous, well-defined and consistently applied investment selection criteria, and adequacy of due diligence undertaken for new investment options;
• design and operational effectiveness of investment option monitoring and reporting frameworks in identifying and responding to performance and risk concerns;
• management of potential conflicts of interest, particularly in relation to related-party service providers that offer, manage, or advise on investment options made available on the platform; and
• deficiencies in board governance, including the quality of information provided and subsequent deliberation, and effectiveness of board oversight.