Disclosure rules just aren't working for investor protection

The old joke was that a prospectus was the fat bit in front of the share application form. A more modern version might be that a product disclosure statement is the fat thing that stops your car insurance renewal fitting into your letterbox.

What is not a joke is that yet another group of self-funded retirees look set to lose big on a bad investment. The collapse of property financier Wickham Securities reportedly puts 300 such investors in danger of losing $27 million. They join the 16,000 investors who lost $650 million in the collapse of Banksia Securities. A cynic may shrug, and quip that a fool and his money are soon parted – especially in an era when it is impossible to do any private financial business without being inundated with disclosure documents.