The Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) has affirmed a decision by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to ban two former financial advisers in regards to advice related to the Shield and First Guardian master funds.
The ART on 7 September affirmed the five-year bans handed down to Shane Monte Silva on 10 December 2025 and Andrew Hanley in March 2026 after they both applied for a review of ASIC’s decision, and Hanley’s application for orders preventing the regulator from publicising the decision was dismissed.
Monte Silva was an authorised representative of Financial Services Group Australia from 24 May 2023 to 10 March 2025 while employed as a financial adviser at AS Financial Planning, and the tribunal found between July and August 2023 he advised five clients to roll existing superannuation into platforms with substantial investments in Shield and First Guardian.
The ART also found he had no involvement in gathering key client information, had limited opportunity to assess clients’ circumstances, often saw statements of advice (SOA) just prior to presenting them to clients and relied on information prepared by others rather than personally identifying the objectives, financial circumstances and needs of clients.
“The ART also found that the advice process formed part of a high-volume model and involved templated SOAs. Three clients with markedly different personal circumstances were advised to invest almost all of their superannuation in First Guardian investments. The substantial similarities between the SOAs indicated the advice was not based on each clients’ individual needs,” ASIC stated.
Hanley was an authorised representative of Interprac from 28 March 2023 to 15 August 2024 and was employed by Venture Egg, a corporate authorised representative of Interprac.
The ART found Hanley failed to act in the best interests of six clients and provided advice not appropriate to their circumstances, with four clients advised to invest in First Guardian and two advised to switch to Venture Egg model portfolios.
The tribunal also found Hanley had limited interaction with his clients or input into the preparation of advice and generally had only minutes to review and assess its adequacy before presenting it to them.
During the bans, Monte Silva and Hanley are prohibited from providing financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business or performing any function involved in carrying on such a business.
ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland added: “Financial advisers cannot outsource their legal obligations to unlicensed marketers, lead generators or paraplanners.
“Advisers must personally understand their clients’ circumstances, critically assess the information gathered and investigate the products they recommend. Simply presenting advice prepared through a high-volume, templated process does not meet those obligations.”
Jason Spits
SENIOR JOURNALIST
Jason is a senior journalist with Benchmark Media and writes for the selfmanagedsuper website and magazine and smstrusteenews website. He has covered financial services since 1999 and has written about life insurance, superannuation, investment management and financial advice, in both a freelance and in-house capacity, and also did a brief stint as a media manager for an industry association. He has been the editor of trade titles Money Management and Financial Standard, and was most recently senior journalist with life insurance title Riskinfo.
Articles by Jason