Protect your super

Last updated: 22 December 2025

Shield and First Guardian Master Funds are two examples of sophisticated super switching schemes that people were talked into. Unfortunately, these schemes can be very convincing and they are still happening with other types of investments. And worse, scammers are trying to squeeze more money out of investors who have already lost their life savings. Learn how to protect yourself and your family.

What is a super switching scheme?

A super switching scheme is a business model where salespeople, who may be licenced financial advisers, will contact you and try to convince you to switch your super to another fund or a self-managed super fund. The goal is to charge you very high fees for very low quality, sometimes unlawful, advice. They may also get commissions for selling your certain products. Often they get your contact information from you by offering a free super review or comparison on social media. They use different techniques, including the use of licenced financial advisers, designed to build trust that switching your super is good advice.

In the best case scenario, people get invested in something that doesn’t earn much more than the super fund they left, but they pay a lot of fees in the process. Worst case scenario, like with Shield and First Guardian, investors lose their money when the investments collapse.

How do you know if you’re dealing with a good adviser?

How do you know if you’re dealing with a good adviser or a dodgy super switching scheme? Switching schemes are getting smarter and may do things that look like good advice to build your trust. They are always trying new things, so it can be very difficult to tell the difference. We’ve put together some red and green flags to help you decide. This list is just a start – every scheme is different. Think about the whole interaction from start to finish when deciding if there’s a problem.

Super switching scheme	Good quality advice
someone calls you out of the blue (or after you clicked on an ad) and offers you a free super health check, comparison or help finding lost super	you contact a financial adviser through their website or by using ASIC’s Financial Advisers Register
they tell you that your fund is underperforming, hiding fees or that other people from your fund aren’t happy with its performance.	they take the time to understand your needs and financial objectives – what’s important to you – before giving you advice
they charge you high advice fees and try to get you to agree to pay ongoing fees for annual advice without clearly explaining the value ( the average annual adviser fee currently sits at about $4,700)	the adviser will clearly explain their fee structure, which will typically vary depending on how much advice you want (e.g. how many topics and how complex your needs are)
they tell you they can get you much better returns, often promising more than 11% over the long term (e.g. 10 years)	they may recommend a new fund that has better past performance for the level of risk that you are ready to take on, but they will never promise you a quick win
you don’t spend much time talking to a financial adviser, or the salesperson tells you they have spoken to the adviser for you	your financial adviser is your main point of contact and the adviser takes the time to answer any questions you have and understand what you’re trying to achieve
they put pressure on you to make a quick decision and sign documents during the call	your financial adviser talks you through the plan, answers your questions, gives you a copy of their advice in writing and gives you time to read it over and think about it before signing anything
their main focus is on selling you a product (e.g. investments or insurance) (and sometimes a specific investment option)	your financial adviser gives you different product options – but also spends time advising you on other things, like tax tips or how the Age Pension works

What is a recovery scam?

A recovery scam is a type of scam where people who have been scammed are scammed again by people offering to help them recover from the first scam. If you’ve been switched into Shield or First Guardian, chances are you were contacted initially by a marketing firm (often called a lead generator) who passed your contact information on to a financial adviser. Lead generators often sell contact information to other companies as well. That means that you may be targeted by someone else as part of a follow-up recovery scam. Scammers also target social media groups created to help investors impacted by scams.

A recovery scammer may call you, email you or contact you on social media (especially if you have joined a group about Shield or First Guardian) pretending to be a professional. They may:

offer to swap your investment for another one to recover your losses
offer to buy your investment at a premium, but ask you to pay a fee to have ‘restrictions’ on the shares lifted
claim they can recover your losses for a percentage of what they get back or for a fee they say is a ‘tax’, ‘deposit’, ‘retainer’ or ‘refundable insurance bond’
include links to websites requesting login details and other personal or financial information

Just hang up!

If you feel uncomfortable with a sales call, just hang up and block the number. You don’t need to listen and be polite! Scroll past social media ads, block dodgy emails or text messages. Block scammers who contact you through social media.

You can reduce the number of cold calls you receive by joining the Do Not Call register.

Report it

Report super switching schemes and advisers who give you bad advice to ASIC.

Report recovery scams to ScamWatch.

If you’ve been contacted by a scammer through social media, you can also report it to the moderator or administrator of the social media group.

Where can I get more information?

See the links below for more information about each topic.

Topic	Links
Protecting yourself from switching schemes and investment scams	ASIC Moneysmart – Protect your super from pushy sales calls ASIC Moneysmart – Check before you invest
Preventing cold calls	ACMA – Do Not Call Register
Dealing with scams	ASIC Moneysmart – What to do if you’ve been scammed
Reporting scams and misconduct	National Anti-Scams Centre – ScamWatch ASIC – Make a report of misconduct