Australian Securities & Investments Commission reports tribunal increased Stephen Rogers registration prohibition from two years to three

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission has published an update on an Administrative Review Tribunal decision that set aside a two-year registration prohibition against financial adviser Stephen Rogers and replaced it with a three-year prohibition. Rogers cannot be registered with ASIC during the prohibition period and cannot provide personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products. The Financial Services and Credit Panel had previously made the two-year order after finding that, while authorised by United Global Capital Pty Ltd, Rogers gave non-compliant advice to a client and acted in a way that was misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive. The findings focused on his use of a scaled advice model that did not consider whether establishing a self-managed superannuation fund or investing that fund in products related to his licensee was suitable, and on the rate of return used in the benefit comparison in his statement of advice. In the tribunal proceedings, ASIC submitted evidence of similar breaches across additional United Global Capital client files and sought a longer prohibition period. The prohibition originally took effect on 7 December 2023. A stay was granted on 3 May 2024 on condition that Rogers did not provide scoped advice during the stay. On 7 April 2026, the Administrative Review Tribunal set aside the panel decision, and on 24 April 2026 it ordered that the prohibition end on 27 November 2028 after taking into account the earlier non-registration period between 7 December 2023 and 2 May 2024.