Melbourne adviser cops permanent ban

In a statement, ASIC said it had permanently banned Nizi Bhandari, who had been self-licensed under Victorian advice business The Australian Dealer Group (ADG) from 2017 to 2020.

"ASIC found that Mr Bhandari acted dishonestly while assisting consumers to find and consolidate their superannuation and obtain hardship payments," the regulator said.

"This included instances where Mr Bhandari told consumers to make false statements to their superannuation fund trustees in order to gain early access to their superannuation balances."

ASIC said it had also found Mr Bhandari and ADG gave personal advice despite only being authorised to provide general advice, and as such failed to comply with obligations around personal advice such as considering the client's best interests.

"By engaging in this conduct, Mr Bhandari and ADG were involved in multiple contraventions of financial services laws," ASIC said.

The regulator said it had cancelled ADG's licence after finding that "its business model was not designed to comply with its obligation to act efficiently, honestly or fairly when providing financial services".

The business had been involved in multiple legal breaches including not complying with the ATO's conditions around lost super searches, acting without the consent of consumers, charging fees for super consolidation that were not transparently communicated to clients, and pressuring consumers into signing agreements over the phone without giving them adequate time to consider terms and conditions.

"As a consequence of this conduct, consumers were potentially exposed to harm, including loss of insurance held through superannuation, extra fees and ATO penalties for inappropriate access to superannuation," ASIC said.

ADG had operated a website called Australian Super Finder, through which a consumer could request a search for lost superannuation. ADG then offered to consolidate the consumer’s ‘found’ superannuation into a new superannuation fund or ‘temporary recovery account’.