The Shield and First Guardian failures have pushed annual advice complaints up for the first time in years after the profession was seeing declines, according to the latest complaints figures from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Investment and advice complaints rose 18 per cent to 4193 due to a raft of new high-profile failures including Shield, First Guardian, United Global Capital and Brite Advisors.

Additionally, there was a 95 per cent rise in complaints involving SMSFs (up to 1323), which accounted for a third of complaints in the sector. Complaints alleging failure to act in the client’s best interest rose 124 per cent to 1266.