POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
Trustee director loses appeal
The director of a small Canberra-based superannuation fund has failed to have the (AAT) overturn a disqualification imposed by the Australian PrudentialRegulation Authority(APRA).
APRA announced late last month that a director of the , , had failed in his appeal and that the disqualification would stand.
The appeal followed on from action taken in July 2004, when APRA disqualified Fearon’s fellow directors, , , and who were all directors of KLA Australia Investments (No 2) Pty Ltd, trustee of the KLA Australia Superannuation Fund.
APRA found that while they were trustee directors between 2001 and 2004, the trustee had failed to submit annual returns to APRA, breached legal requirements to have equal representatives of employees and employers on the trustee board and also breached in-house asset rules, member disclosure requirements and the requirement to maintain minutes of meetings.
In September 2004, APRA disqualified Fearon for the same reasons as his fellow directors and also found that he had personally breached the requirement to maintain appropriate records. A month later, APRA also found Fearon’s position as trustee director conflicted with his role as auditor and compromised the principle of auditor independence.
In confirming APRA’s decision to disqualify Fearon, the AAT found that he had failed to comply with obligations placed on him as a director of the trustee of the fund and repeatedly failed to comply with the requests of APRA. It found that he performed audits of the fund even though he was not independent.
The AAT also found that Fearon deliberately tried to deceive APRA and the by lodging with ASIC in 2004 documents purporting to show he had resigned as a trustee director in 2001.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
Recommended for you
The super fund has significantly grown its membership following the inclusion of Zurich’s OneCare Super policyholders.
Super balances have continued to rise in August, with research showing Australian funds have maintained strong momentum, delivering steady gains for members.
Australian Retirement Trust and State Street Investment Management have entered a partnership to deliver global investment insights and practice strategies to Australian advisers.
CPA Australia is pressing the federal government to impose stricter rules on the naming and marketing of managed investment and superannuation products that claim to be “sustainable”, “ethical”, or “responsible”, warning that vague or untested claims are leaving investors exposed.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
76.97 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
76.46 3 y p.a(%)
3
UBS Solactive Global Pure Gold Miners UCITS ETF Dis USD
51.13 3 y p.a(%)
4
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
45.15 3 y p.a(%)
5
Select Baker steel Gold Institutional
43.78 3 y p.a(%)
