First Guardian and Shield investors consider class action over alleged undercompensation

Natasha Langby, a 55-year-old investor, feels she has nothing left to lose after losing tens of thousands of dollars of her retirement savings in the collapse of First Guardian. She is among 6,000 people who collectively lost $446 million when the fund collapsed last year.

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They just couldn't get anywhere with it. That's when I contacted Jason from Gordon Legal and said, 'look, are you guys doing a class action because I just think this is ridiculous'.

While Netwealth, a super platform, reimbursed about $100 million to approximately 1,000 First Guardian investors, including Ms. Langby, these payouts did not account for the compounding impact of her money. This means she did not receive the amount her superannuation would have accumulated had it remained in a performing fund.

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We've already had over 100 people contact us in a really short period of time, and we expect more people to contact us over the next few weeks.

Gordon Legal and Keily McCrosson are jointly investigating potential claims for investors in both the First Guardian and Shield Master Funds, including those who invested through Macquarie and Netwealth. James Naughton from Gordon Legal stated that over 100 investors have already contacted them, and more are expected. He explained that even investors who received payouts may not have been fully compensated for all their losses, particularly the lost opportunity for their money to earn returns over time.

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Macquarie and Netwealth entered into agreements with ASIC to pay back the capital that had been lost by those investors … but those investors are still in the dark and haven't been compensated fully.

In addition to the First Guardian investors, 5,800 people lost $480 million in the Shield fund. Macquarie reimbursed $321 million to 3,000 Shield investors. Naughton argued that these reimbursements did not fully compensate investors for the significant period their money was inaccessible and the potential earnings they missed out on for their retirement nest egg.

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In particular, they haven't been compensated for the fact that during the time after the collapse of First Guardian, they were out of their money for a significant amount of time, and they lost the opportunity to have that money in their super funds earning money for them for their retirement.