Select Income Fund

Adverse Publicity Notice
​
Ordered by the Federal Court of Australia

The Federal Court of Australia has ordered Australian Unity Funds Management Limited (AUFM) to publish this adverse publicity notice.

On 23 December 2025, Justice Moshinsky of the Federal Court of Australia declared that Australian Unity Funds Management Limited (AUFM) contravened s 994E(3) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and ordered AUFM to pay a pecuniary penalty of $7,125,000.

Overview of the contravening conduct
Between 5 October 2021 and 5 October 2023 (the Contravention Period), AUFM provided retail clients with an opportunity to invest in AUFM’s “Australian Unity Select Income Fund” (Fund).

During the Contravention Period, AUFM was required to prepare target market determinations (TMDs) for the Fund. The TMDs had to, among other things: (1) describe the class of retail clients that comprised the target market for the Fund, (2) specify distribution conditions such that it would be likely that a retail client (to whom an interest in the Fund was issued) was within the Fund’s target market; and (3) take reasonable steps to ensure its conduct was consistent with its TMDs.

During the Contravention Period, AUFM failed to comply with s 994E(3)(d) of the Corporations Act, by:

(i) on 89 occasions during the Contravention Period, issuing interests in the Fund to retail clients who had not been required to, and did not, submit a questionnaire to determine whether the retail client was within the target market described in the Fund TMD; and

(ii) on 239 occasions during the Contravention Period, issuing interests in the Fund to retail clients without reviewing their submitted questionnaires to determine whether the retail client was in the target market described in the Fund TMD.

AUFM’s response

AUFM co-operated with ASIC in its investigation, and AUFM agreed that it contravened s 994E(3) of the Corporations Act when it failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that its issuing of interests in the Fund to retail clients was undertaken consistently with the Fund TMDs. AUFM will establish a program to remediate impacted customers, who will be contacted separately in due course.

Further information

For further information about AUFM’s conduct, see the following links:

• Statement of agreed facts;
• Justice Moshinsky’s judgment on penalty; and
• ASIC’s media release