{"id":796211,"date":"2026-07-12T21:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796211\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T21:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:21:11","slug":"first-guardian-and-shield-master-fund-collapse-melbourne-teacher-ariel-mack-loses-168000-after-missing-red-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796211\/","title":{"rendered":"First Guardian and Shield Master Fund collapse: Melbourne teacher Ariel Mack loses $168,000 after missing red flag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: Ariel Mack\u2019s vanishing superannuation fund<\/a> has destroyed her plans for retirement.<\/p>\n

The former teacher and single mother from Melbourne<\/a>, 48, said she is terrified the past three decades of work have been \u201cfor nothing\u201d after losing the majority of her retirement nest egg overnight.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ariel Mack lost $168,000 in super after the collapse of First Guardian.\u00a0Ariel Mack<\/p>\n

Mack\u2019s $173,000 superannuation fund depleted to just over $5000 after the catastrophic collapse of investment scheme First Guardian in 2025,<\/a> which impacted about 5800 investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI panicked and went through all the emotions, I was really upset\u2026 just bawling my eyes out,\u201d Mack told nine.com.au.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t go to work that day. I had to take that day off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the point of working and getting your super if it\u2019s now all gone? What am I working for?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mack\u2019s unwitting pathway to First Guardian is a devastatingly familiar one.<\/p>\n

After using an online comparison tool, she was contacted by a financial advisor who convinced her to roll her super into an investment fund called AusPrac in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The former teacher now needs to rethink when she might retire.\u00a0Ariel Mack<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just looking for something that would work better for my money, thinking I had about 20 years to retire,\u201d Mack explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want it to be high-risk, just low to medium was fine, because I didn\u2019t want to lose money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mack claims she was assured her fund would generate healthy returns in \u201cfive to 10 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

She paid a hefty advice fee, which cost some investors in the realm of $2000 to $4000, and her super was switched over.<\/p>\n

Mack paid dearly for trusting the process, along with nearly 6000 other Australians who discovered their superannuation fund had been funnelled into the First Guardian scheme.<\/p>\n

Around $168,000 was wiped out from her nest egg when First Guardian entered liquidation.<\/p>\n

Her retirement fund included a sum of money from her separation settlement, which is now \u201calso gone\u201d.<\/p>\n

ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Diversa Trustees Limited, the trustee for Ausprac, alleging failures relating to the First Guardian Master Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ASIC alleges that Diversa breached its duties<\/a> \u201cby failing to warn each member of the risk of illiquidity of the First Guardian Master fund,\u201d leaving members exposed when the fund ultimately froze withdrawals and entered liquidation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is seeking orders for compensation, including possibly a remediation program, to recoup losses for investors like Mack.<\/p>\n

Diversa previously said it would \u201cvigorously defend\u201d the claims.<\/p>\n

ASIC is not pursuing any action against Ausprac.<\/p>\n

Mack said she was \u201cslow\u201d to learn about First Guardian\u2019s collapse as she was moving her mother into a nursing home and struggled to find the time to check her balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d contacted [AusPrac] previously with no response and thought it was a bit \u2018suss\u2019 but it wasn\u2019t a priority,\u201d Mack added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had it on my list to sort this year. Maybe transfer it back to my old account which has 10,000 in it in Hostplus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t diligent enough and should have acted. I knew something wasn\u2019t right and now I\u2019ve paid the ultimate price.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The collapse of the First Guardian and Shield superannuation funds has devastated the lives of thousands of Australians. \u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Mack found solace in connecting with thousands of other financial victims in the Facebook group SOS – Save Our Super, led by fellow investor Melinda Kee.<\/p>\n

It was then she was urged to lodge a complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).<\/a><\/p>\n

She is now awaiting the result of an investigation into her complaint.<\/p>\n

AFCA has fielded over 1319 complaints regarding First Guardian.<\/p>\n

Another 6000 Australian\u00a0 investors lost money in the collapse of Shield Master Fund in 2025. AFCA has received over 840 complaints regarding this fund.<\/p>\n

\u2018Thirty years of hard work gone\u2019<\/p>\n

As Mack awaits a resolution from ASIC and AFCA, she is concerned her retirement is slowly slipping away.<\/p>\n

She had planned to stop working permanently in 20 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This feels like a pipe dream now.<\/p>\n

Mack\u2019s missing retirement fund haunts almost every financial decision she now makes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never earn all that money back,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to have to work for another 30 years\u2026 but I\u2019d have to work so much to get it all back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine being the poor people in retirement or who were just about to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mack had stepped out of the industry after suffering burnout, but knows she has little option other than to work again \u2013 and soon.<\/p>\n

Postcodes in Melbourne hit the hardest by twin collapse<\/p>\n

Mack lives in Werribee, one of the suburbs in Melbourne most impacted by First Guardian and Master Shield\u2019s $1.1 billion collapse.<\/p>\n

Data released by ASIC\u00a0 listed four Melbourne<\/a> postcodes as among the ten most impacted areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These included the suburbs of Cranbourne, Cranbourne East, Cranbourne North, Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Truganina and Craigieburn\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fellow investor and advocate Melinda Kee warned many investors \u201cstill don\u2019t even know they\u2019ve been affected\u201d.<\/p>\n

Laverton MP Sarah Connolly, whose electorate serves Werribee and Hoppers Crossing, told nine.com.au that her \u201cheart goes out to anyone who\u2019s had their superannuation affected by this collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage those especially in Wyndham who are with First Guardian or Master Shield to urgently check their super balance immediately and visit the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) webpage relevant to their superannuation fund,\u201d Connolly said.<\/p>\n

Nine.com.au has contacted the state MPs for the other impacted postcodes, Ros Spence, John Lister and Pauline Richards, for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Ariel Mack\u2019s vanishing superannuation fund has destroyed her plans for retirement. The former teacher and single mother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-796211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}