Garry Crole. A potential saviour of the profession

Interprac CEO Garry Crole has gone to places where many in our industry have been reluctant to tread.

This is also potentially great news for the Consumer victims involved.

If the current structure of the CSLR is maintained and the $1.2 billion of First Guardian/Shield losses are allocated to the Advice community, it is a vicious financial nightmare for all Financial Advisers on the ASIC register.

Currently, the ASIC register compromises the following Adviser numbers and classifications –

1. 15,610 listed in total
2. 6,426 with approved qualifications.
3. 4,580 on the Experienced Pathway [thanks to the AIOFP!]
4. 4,604 yet to meet standards.

If the total numbers reduce to 8,000 after CSLR ‘impact retirements’ and those not meeting the 1/1/2026 education ‘cliff’, simple arithmetic suggests the following outcome for those who remain on the ASIC register –

• 15,610 divided into $1.2 billion = $76, 874 each
• 8,000 divided into $1.2 billion = $150,000 each

This does not include new entrants joining [who would want to…] or the other Dixon etc liabilities which are quite different to the Shield and First Guardian failures because they were in – house products.

Garry Crole has highlighted the protection of the superannuation industry introduced by the Gillard government and overseen by APRA in placing a big spotlight on the protection of ORFR and the important roles Trustees, Responsible entities, Custodians, Research Houses, Platforms and Auditors play in the manufacturing and distribution process.

The media has finally worked this out and the focus is on all of the stakeholders, NOT Financial Advisers outside of the guilty ones involved.

ASIC has commenced action against Equity Trustees and put pressure on Macquarie and Netwealth with further announcements expected shortly.

As you know, in the past ASIC have attacked Financial Advisers and left the other stakeholders alone, we DON’T want to give them any excuses to change their current focus.

Garry has been an AIOFP member elected Director since 2022 with his term up in November 2025 and it is well known he is retiring early next year from the industry. His experience and conduct has been highly valued by the Board.

We don’t want to give anyone an excuse to try and spin this product failure back onto the Advice Profession by forcing Garry to resign prematurely from the Board with a few months to go of his term. In sporting parlance, we don’t want to kick ‘a home goal’.

Yes, the OPTICS may not be perfect to some but maintaining the current favourable narrative is paramount. Furthermore, reality suggests a CEO of a national 400 Adviser practice cannot be expected to detect fraudulent behaviour if all the other stakeholders cannot.

Needless to say, the 2 Interprac Adviser members involved were terminated once their breaches were detected, and the AIOFP hopes they get exactly what they deserve.

In addition, the AIOFP hopes the Product Managers and First Guardian management who deceived APRA/ASIC and all the other stakeholders also get what they deserve.

At last the big end of town are feeling the heat for their conduct.

It should be noted that this ORFR Consumer protection mechanism was successfully used to compensate the non SMSF victims of the 2009 TRIO Fraud, in circumstances very similar to this fiasco.

What Garry has done so far with standing up for the Advice Profession by highlighting the ineffective roles of the other stakeholders including ASIC/APRA deserves applause, Licensees normally avoid this outcome fearing an unwanted audit.

If Garry is successful with APRA agreeing to activate the ORFR mechanism it will literally be a Billion dollar + saving for the Advice Profession, a magnificent outcome that may just save the careers of thousands of Financial Advisers and the Advice Profession as we know it.

More importantly, the Consumer victims involved will get full compensation.

We will keep you informed of developments.