First Guardian investors contest InterPrac sale as retirees seek superannuation recovery

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First Guardian investors contest InterPrac sale

Highlights

More than 6,000 out of nearly 12,000 investors in the failed First Guardian and Shield schemes were clients of advisers licensed under InterPrac, amounting to about A$680 million invested.
Investors fear InterPrac's pending sale to Bellbird Australia could reduce funds available for claims, as ASIC considers intervening to halt the transaction.
ASIC has sued InterPrac, the only solvent licensee with exposure to these collapsed funds, while a prominent adviser, Rhys Reilly, received a 10-year industry ban in April.

Investor losses and the compensation dispute

As reported by ABC News, Meredith Wright is trying to recover about A$200,000 of her husband Kevin Wright's superannuation after learning in February 2025 that his retirement savings had been rolled into NQ Super and largely invested in the now-collapsed Shield and First Guardian managed investment schemes.

Wright said her husband, who is dying from lung cancer, had been preparing to retire when the couple discovered his account had been frozen. She later learned from Brighter Super that his entire super had been rolled over in August 2023, and from NQ Super that most of the money had been placed into the two failed funds.

She has taken the matter to the financial ombudsman and made a complaint to the licensee overseeing the advisers involved, InterPrac, a firm previously owned by listed company Sequoia. ASIC is also suing InterPrac, which the report describes as the only solvent financial advice licensee with exposure to the collapsed funds.

Wright said former adviser Rhys Reilly, who ASIC banned in April from providing financial services for 10 years, advised her husband to move the funds into First Guardian and Shield. Reilly has appealed the ban and told ABC News he had previously tried to work with InterPrac to help compensate victims and hoped investors would be repaid.

Regulatory scrutiny and broader impact on Australian retirees

Of nearly 12,000 investors who put more than A$1 billion of retirement savings into First Guardian and Shield, more than 6,000 were clients of advisers licensed under InterPrac, accounting for about A$680 million invested across the two schemes. Those investors are now concerned that InterPrac's sale to Bellbird Australia could shrink the pool of money available for claims, while the corporate regulator considers whether there are grounds to stop the transaction.

Sequoia said it was unable to comment on personal matters because of privacy. The case highlights growing risks for Australian retirees who consolidated superannuation through online lead-generation channels and were then steered into higher-risk products they say they did not fully understand.

Wright said she and her husband filled out an online form in late 2023 while trying to locate potentially lost super after changing jobs, and did not realise they had signed a rollover form until months later. She said the recovery process is likely to outlast her husband's life, underscoring the financial and human toll of the fund failures for affected households.

Our earlier article on the Philippine Social Security System (SSS) reviewed the pension fund’s response to scrutiny over recent paper losses, emphasizing the difference between unrealized declines and actual cash losses. It also outlined how SSS points to decades of realized gains and dividend income, and highlighted its diversified, risk-managed investment approach aimed at safeguarding members’ contributions.

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