A former financial planner banned for six years over his role in encouraging clients to invest in the Global Capital Property Fund (GCPF) has seen his banning reduced.
Milutin Petrovic’s banning took effect in January 2025 and prevented him from providing financial services, controlling (whether alone or in concert with one or more other entities) an entity that carries on a financial services business and performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business.
ASIC found that Petrovic failed key advice obligations when recommending clients to invest their retirement savings into financial products related to his licensee, United Global Capital (UGC).
The regulator was concerned that UGC and its representatives gave conflicted personal advice to clients, specifically those advised to establish a SMSF and invest in highly speculative investments related to UGC’s director Joel Hewish which included a company called Global Capital Property Fund Limited (GCPF).
Following a review by the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART), his ban has been varied from six years to three years.
“In January 2025, Petrovic sought a review of a decision to ban him for six years which was made by a delegate of ASIC. The Administrative Review Tribunal heard the matter in June and July 2025. The decision to vary the ban was issued on 11 December 2025.”
Petrovic had argued to the ART that there was a misunderstanding of the business model and his role and inconsistency regarding the target returns which demonstrated a “lack of understanding of the facts” and were grounds for an appeal.
“The decision inaccurately states that I recommended a specific investment. This is incorrect; my role was to facilitate investments that clients had independently selected prior to being referred to me by a referral partner.
“ASIC claims it was unreasonable for me to reference a 13 per cent arget return on the GCPF product and asserts that I had no basis for this figure.
“In reality, this target return was published in the investment prospectus, based on a thorough analysis by the investment managers. This prospectus was submitted to ASIC. Furthermore, the decision document acknowledges that the actual returns achieved on projects within the fund were as high as 22 per cent, significantly exceeding the target, which further validates the reliability of the original projections.”
