Spaceship Financial Services and Tidswell Financial Services have each paid $12,600 in penalties following an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) investigation that found the superannuation promoter and trustee made false and misleading claims about their fundamental investment philosophy.
ASIC issued the infringement notices after concerns that the promotional statements made on Spaceship’s website prioritised marketing over accurate disclosure.
The statement read: “We will fight to get you the very best assets in your portfolio … We will measure companies in our portfolio based on their ability to provide defensibility of profits and high levels of product differentiation.”
ASIC said the statements mislead prospective members as 79 per cent of the fund was invested in index-tracking funds, which involved no qualitative analysis of the underlying companies.
ASIC deputy chair, Peter Kell, said the accurate promotion of superannuation products was critical to enable Australian consumers to make well-informed financial decisions, “particularly in this case given the Spaceship Fund was specifically targeting young investors”.
Michael Lovett, who left the investment firm just three months after launching its Vanguard Super offering, has taken up a chief executive role at an Australian asset manager.
The Central Bank of Ireland has granted the approval of Equity Trustees’ exit from its Irish operations, with the transaction expected to be complete on 30 April.
Super returns continued to climb in March, raising hopes of delivering double-digit returns by June depending on the performance of this next quarter.
The dedicated super fund for emergency services and Victorian government employees is under fire for unpaid entitlements to transport employees, which could exceed $40 million.
Add new comment