The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has handed down a four-year ban to Gold Coast-based financial adviser Andrew Rankin.
Under the ban, he is prohibited from providing any financial services, controlling an entity that carries on a financial services business, and performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business until August 2029.
ASIC found that Rankin, who was an authorised representative of the now defunct Next Generation Advice from 13 September 2021 to 11 November 2022, failed to act in the best interests of a number of his clients and gave inappropriate advice.
Next Generation Advice is among the advice licensees caught up in the failure of the Shield Master Fund, however it also has ties to United Global Capital (UGC), which entered into voluntary administration in July 2024 following the Federal Court freezing its assets a month earlier.
UGC director Joel Hewish was subsequently banned for 10 years, which he unsuccessfully appealed.
In October 2024, ASIC cancelled Next Generation Advice’s AFSL after the Queensland Supreme Court ordered the company be wound up on 23 August 2024.
In cancelling Next Gen’s licence, ASIC required the…