Brite Advisors - Receivership

Brite Advisors, the Australian arm of a UK pensions & investment company for UK expats, was placed into receivership on 13 December on application by ASIC, following concerns over the management of Brite and the approximately AUD$1 billion client pension funds under its management. ASIC secured interim asset preservation orders against Brite in October and Linda Smith and Robert Kirman of McGrathNicol were appointed as investigative accountants over the firm in November. After conducting an initial review, the investigative accountants provided a report to the Court on 8 December which noted a potential $100m discrepancy between total investor account balances and assets held by the firm. On 13 December, Linda Smith and Robert Kirman were appointed as receivers and managers of the firm. They are carrying on the operations of Brite while they conduct further investigations to enable them to provide a report to the Court and ASIC within 42 days.