ASIC has released a review examining lead generation activity involving 15 Australian financial services licensees that operated between January 2025 and June 2026, ABC News reported. Telemarketers, also called lead generators, used social media advertising and phone calls to identify consumers and connect them with licensed financial advisers, who then moved clients' superannuation out of APRA-regulated funds.
Across the period reviewed, more than 7,600 customers were acquired through lead generation. Referrals by lead generators resulted in roughly $678 million being invested, with superannuation accounting for more than 90% of those funds. Earlier in the review period, ASIC announced it would be examining firms that allow lead generators to operate.
Five of the 15 licensees reviewed had no controls in place prohibiting high-risk superannuation fund changes. A further four licensees were running businesses that displayed some features of high-risk superannuation switching.
Potentially misleading statements and fear-based claims were among the tactics unqualified lead generators used to persuade people to shift their investments, according to the review. Investors were also pushed to reconsider their superannuation arrangements through comparisons that were not like-for-like.
Among the review's findings were cases of unlicensed or unqualified lead generators operating in ways that revealed significant oversight failures by licensees. ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said financial services licences were at risk if lead-generation methods were used.
Kirkland said ASIC's work in recent years had shown how business models relying on persuasive sales tactics to get people to switch super could expose Australians to serious financial harm. He said people should be free from pressure and misinformation when making significant financial choices, and that the oversight standards displayed by certain licensees were unacceptable.
Australians who receive phone calls or social media contact from telemarketers encouraging them to switch their superannuation may be dealing with unlicensed or unqualified lead generators using misleading statements or fear-based tactics. People who follow such referrals and move their super may be shifting into higher-risk arrangements, with ASIC flagging that some licensees lack controls to prevent high-risk switching.
Reporting: ABC News, The New Daily
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
