Victorian financial adviser Nicholas Hogan has been banned from the financial services industry for four years for failing to act in the best interests of clients, inappropriate advice and misleading, deceptive and unprofessional conduct.
ASIC found that Mr Hogan engaged in misleading, deceptive and or unprofessional conduct by impersonating other advisers, knowingly having statements of advice (SOA) prepared by others in his name, and presenting SOAs in the name of other advisers to clients of Venture Egg and Reilly Financial with limited interaction between himself and the clients.
Mr Hogan gave advice to four clients to switch their superannuation funds using an advice process that outsourced key parts of the advice process, including the fact find and risk profile assessment to an unlicensed third party referral partner.
ASIC found that Mr Hogan gave predetermined advice outcomes based on a template SOA which recommended clients switch their existing superannuation funds to Netwealth and retain a standard sum of $10,000 in each of the existing superannuation funds for insurance purposes.
The banning order took effect from 18 December 2025.
Background
Mr Hogan commenced his professional year training in February 2022 under the supervision of Ferras Merhi of Ferras Merhi Pty Ltd & United Financial Advice Pty Ltd (Venture Egg).
On 2 September 2022, Mr Hogan became an authorised representative of Interprac Financial Planning Pty Ltd under the corporate authorised representative of Venture Egg. On 3 March 2023 he moved to the corporate authorised representative, Rhys Reilly Pty Ltd trading as Reilly Financial.
On 22 December 2025, Mr Hogan lodged an application with the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) seeking a review of ASIC's decision, as well as an application for a stay and confidentiality order pending the outcome of the ART review.
Mr Hogan later withdrew his application for a review of ASIC's decision, as well as the application for stay and confidentially orders and the ART confirmed the application was dismissed.
Consumers that have concerns in relation to the financial advice they have received are entitled to lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
The banning has been recorded on ASIC's publicly available Financial Advisers Register and the Banned and Disqualified register.
ASIC's Moneysmart website has useful information for consumers whose advisers have been banned.
More information
- Information Sheet 182 Super switching advice - complying with your obligations (INFO 182) provides general information and compliance tips for financial advisers who provide super switching advice. This information sheet also provides specific examples of inadequate conduct in some of those areas where we frequently encounter compliance issues.
- ASIC has issued a consumer alert warning amid increasing concerns that people are being enticed to invest their retirement savings into complex and risky schemes: 25-120MR Consumer alert. Be super smart, visit ASIC's Moneysmart campaign page.
- ASIC has also commenced a new review of licensees that use lead generation services: 26-029MR.
