United Global Capital's (UGC) AFCA Membership ending on May 31st 2025
United Global Capital's (UGC) Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence was cancelled by ASIC in June of 2024, and the company went into voluntary administration in July of 2024.
UGC began providing financial services in 2017, and has subsequently been found to have advised prospective clients to set up Self Managed Super Funds (SMSFs), and then advised them to invest in schemes the UGC Director Mr Joel Hewish had interests in. In addition to cancelation of UGC’s AFS Licence, this has seen Mr Hewish banned from working in financial services by ASIC for 10 years.
As part of the cancellation of UGC’s Licence, ASIC has mandated that they remain a member of AFCA until May 31st 2025. Giving clients who have lost funds due to the advice provided by UGC, time to make a complaint to AFCA.
In their April 2025 UGC update AFCA has noted that; “As UGC is in liquidation, and there is no certainty it will be able to comply with any AFCA determinations requiring it to pay compensation to complainants, AFCA needs to consider whether any UGC complaint it receives is within the scope of the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR).”
AFCA complaints can be complex to navigate and calculate accurately. They take into account the direct loss incurred due to inappropriate advice, but also look at the potential gains that have been missed due to the inappropriate advice recommendations that were followed. In the event of administration, like UGC has declared, it is possible that an AFCA determination requiring payment may not be able to be paid. Requiring clients to then be evaluated under the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) to see if they can recoup some of their losses.
An article by Karren Vergara in the Financial Standard notes “The failure of UGC is the main driver behind the spike in the 2026 CSLR levy estimates, tipped to be $70 million. UGC accounts for $44.6 million in claims and $3.6 million in AFCA fees - meaning $48.2 million out of the total $70 million.”
For more information about Mr Joel James Hewish and United Global Capital Pty Ltd’s (UGC) please see our article ASIC Bans Joel James Hewish for 10 Years, or refer to the ASIC Media Release MR-170MR from the 31st of July 2024.
