Dixon Advisory

Self Serving Investment Advice – I left after 4 years after escalating costs. What I found was the administration e.g. setup and annual audit, returns etc. was very good. However, I found their investment arm was self serving, over priced and under performing.

Self-serving advice – Left Dixons after 3 years. Nothing but self serving 'advice'. We dodged the URF and New Solar ( even though they were really pushed on us) Other, non 'Dixon' stock recommendations were a mixed bag but overall fairly hopeless. Put us into closed Funds that are a problem. Still trying to clean up the mess they left us with. Reading other reviews I count us as one of the lucky ones. Stay well clear of them.  Show details

Excellent Service – We have been with Dixon Advisory since 2012. Throughout that time they have provided an excellent service which is personal and tailored to our needs. They keep us well informed of the wider financial and economic scene which at times can be bewildering to us ordinary folk. We appreciate the strategic approach taken in managing our financial… Read more

future and the attention taken in meeting our current requirements & needs.

They have always given us 2 staff members as our personal contacts. While this team has changed over time it has always maintained the same level of personal service. We have no hesitation in emailing or ringing them for guidance. This provides a great deal of comfort and security as we now move into our retirement years. Our personal thanks to Lester & Alice who have been there for us the past 3 years.

Many thanks to Dixon and their team.

Sandie & Paul Dickson

Reliable and objective – We have been with Dixon Advisory for over 20 years and have always trusted our advisors to provide reliable and objective advice. We are very satisfied with the high quality service we have received and remain confident that we will continue to enjoy our retirement as our savings are secure and well-managed.

Great and solid advice for our SMSF following a review of our 10 year old Fund by Dixon – The two trustees of this SMSF are retiring this and next financial years and we needed a thorough review of the 10 year old SMSF because of our due retirements, our fund dependence on Australian listed shares with franking credits were another big concern for us with the looming Labor proposals and we were looking for opportunities available to us… Read more

to benefit and correct our situation. We used E-Superfund for the last 10 years for our SMSF administration, we don't have any complaints with them but they clearly advice clients to get financial advice from suitable financial and competent advisers.

Dixon did a thorough review of our situation and came up with solid recommendations with regards to:

1. The mix of our SMSF investments (ours - mainly Australian shares with a lot of franking credits), and recommendations on potential remedies for diversification.

2. Address the funds and personal taxable positions for the now and the future and how to remedy any issues.

3. Address the SMSF set-up and structure from a legal and inheritance perspective so that surviving partner(s) don't have the stress when you don't need that.

The concern we had that our fund only had 400K of assets and that the implementation and ongoing cost would cost us a fair bit. The cost of all of the above actions as upfront quoted to us were in the end very reasonable and cost beneficial, in fact the recommendations offset the majority of the cost to implement, with benefits flowing into further years.

A pleasure to deal with the staff involved, who are competent and capable and responsive

Dixion Advisory experience – Lost over $140K due to Dixions advise to purchase URF and New solar. When confronted my advisors regarding the decline they assured me verbally that all will pick up after the USA election...load of bullocks! I am working with Shine Lawyers

Poor Advice – We have lost over $350,000 + over 6 years investing is what is biased advice to invest in ïn-house" products with exorbitant fees. Very disappointing outcomes and a blatant violation in what is supposed to be a "controlled" industry.

Dixon/E&P has lost my SFMF thousands of dollars – I bought Evans and Partners (E&P) shares on advice from the firm at $2.50 each which now is being purchased for $0.30 cash with offer of new TGP shares valued at $0.40. This will result in a loss of $21,880 to my SFMF. The losses from similarly recommended products such as the URF from Dixon Advisory are even larger. Understand ASIC is now taking legal action against E&P. Happy to provide data in support of this action if and when required.

Dixon advisory now E & P Financial Group – Beware Dixon Advisory have changed their name to E & P Financial Group. Don’t trust them or their SMSF advice. Dixon’s reputation was trashed because of their poor investment advice, so now they have changed their name to rebuild their business. I know because I lost $150,000.00 through their advice and ASIC is taking Dixons to the High Court for not acting in their clients best interests. They should not be able to get away with this.

Advice not in the client's best interest! – After being a client of Dixons for the past 6 years I have now left. Like many new clients I chose Dixons to establish my SMSF and manage it because of the excellent reputation of Daryl Dixon in the field of superannuation. It is a pity his reputation has now been totally trashed. I trusted my advisor and in hindsight realise that was my first… Read more

mistake. I was consistently advised to invest in the 'in house' products developed by Dixons because they would perform. I now believe that the advice I was given was not in my best interest and feel totally betrayed. Yes, I was naive as an investor to begin with which is why I chose an expensive full service provider. Unfortunately I have lost about 300K which I doubt I will ever recover. Whenever I questioned the diminishing value of my investments I was told 'the value is there, it will come back". After reading the experiences of others who have written here it is clear we were all being fed the same line. I now control my own investment decisions and sleep at night. Unfortunately it will be a long, long time before I have any faith in another investment advisor and I think this is a pity. Hopefully the ASIC case will uncover the truth about the investment strategy used by Dixons toward their clients.

Conned by Dixon's – We became clients of Dixon Advisory about 6 years ago after the GFC , believing they were a reputable trustworthy company . How wrong we were. We were advised to invest the majority of our funds in their own products which have seen us lose a fair percentage of our capital in a very short time. We trusted our advisor and when URF, New Energy… Read more

Solar and [name removed] shares started to decline, we questioned him several times about their performance , but on each occasion were advised not to sell as they would improve, which never happened. We now realize that due to conflict of interest we were never going to be advised to sell any of their products. We decided in February this year that we had had enough and sold all investments we could, but then found out that we could not sell Forth Street or Cordish Dixon 1V , when we really need those funds for our retirement, We paid $6990 per year basically for advice on how to lose money. No wonder they changed their name. Hopefully ASIC can have their day in court and expose them for what they have done to us and hundreds of others.

Devastated Clients – When ASIC completes its corporate action against Dixon Advisory (owned now by E&P Financial Group), we will see the confirmation of yet another bad actor in the investment sector. How bad is now revealed in the reviews on these pages, as well as numerous articles in the financial press. While we can measure our financial losses in the SMSFs set up… Read more

by Dixons, what is harder to measure is the ongoing anxiety, worry, sleepless nights, guilt and sorrow that this company has brought upon us. When I had an interview with the founder of Dixon’s over 15 years ago, I felt confident in placing my savings for retirement with them, and regular radio appearances and articles on superannuation by the founder strengthened my confidence. However, my concerns were first raised in 2008 when high profile principals of the firm along with Dixon clients lost money in the Lift Capital collapse. It was at this point that I became aware that members of the firm were employing risky strategies for higher returns in their investment strategies. As time went by, I received numerous emails from my Dixon advisor and their broker about “opportunities” that were available to me (but would close on that Friday!). I didn’t like the anxiety and tension this raised, and it made me question whether this was just a marketing ploy to generate more activities and fees in my account. I couldn’t understand why this super fund manager was taking a “boiler room” approach to selling products. Later I was told I would need to transfer my Cash Management Accounts to bank accounts that were “approved” by Dixon - meaning for which they would receive fees. Soon this was followed by phone calls and advice to sell my blue chip Australian shares paying franked dividends to buy into the property market in the US. This made no sense to me. I was happy with my investments but still worried whether they knew better than me and was I missing out on a good investment. However, by 2011 a highly respected property advisor was writing that the New Jersey properties were “speculative ...cheap and nasty”. I looked at the URF glossy brochure and didn’t like what I saw. On top of this no one else was recommending URF: it was only sold to Dixon clients - an easy and captive market. Later I we found out about the huge fees Dixons were raking in from this product. All these were signs of greed that I found extremely hard to reconcile with my first impressions. Trust is number one but at each step along the way I felt my trust was abused. The final straw was that I was asked to leave Dixons, and another Super Fund manager was suggested to me. I felt appalled and upset. I said to the managing director who called me that I wanted the simple service that I had signed up for with the trustworthy founder. He simply said, “Well things change". However, as the expensive, blanket advertising of Dixons continued I realised that they were replacing unwanted clients like me with new clients who were unaware of their tactics. This is a firm which exploited its clients to the max with conflicted advice while taking high management fees all the way. The Dixon name may disappear, and the E&P Group may be taken over, but devastated clients and trashed portfolios are left behind forever.

Conflicting & Irresponsible Advice – It appears Dixon Advisory have or are changing their name to “E&P Financial Group”. Like many other Dixon Advisory clients we too have suffered significant financial losses due to their advice to invest in various funds in which Dixons were associated. Many of their clients are self-funded retirees who, like us, relied on Dixons to assist them… Read more

with financial planning in their retirement.

We joined Dixons in 2017 and like many retirees had a very conservative risk profile not wanting to make risky investment decisions. They looked at our portfolio and recommended we sell various stocks we had had for years and invest in a number of property funds which we were told would suit our situation.

Rather than go into specifics many of these funds were funds in which Dixons were associated and over the course of the next two years the value of these funds dropped to a fraction of what we paid for them. Despite this our advisor was suggesting we buy more of these funds which we declined as to us it seemed Dixons were using clients' cash to fund their own projects.

We are now stuck with several funds which we are unable to sell (Fort Street, Cordish Dixon – now name changed to CD Fund) despite our advisor telling us we could sell at any time and other funds (URF, ED1, NEW) which have dropped in value to a mere fraction of what we paid for them.

There has been much written about these issues over the past 12 months in the Australian Financial Review and other papers. We have lodged a complaint with AFIC, ASIC have issued a writ against them and Shine Lawyers have a Class Action pending.

We did make a formal complaint to Dixons "Complaints Resolution” department claiming that their advice was conflicted and not in accordance with our risk profile. Of course they rejected this but asked us to accept a $500 "strictly confidential" payment. This was declined as we preferred the option of being able to write reviews such as this. (Refer to similar reviews on this website).

It is also worth noting their fees - minimum brokerage fee was $110.00 per trade and this was in addition to their annual fee of $6990.00 which covered the services of an advisor and the administration of our super fund.

Curiously but not surprisingly Dixon Advisory is set to change its name - to E&P Financial Group. What better way to dodge their responsibilities and at the same time pop up under a different name so that future clients may be blissfully unaware of what went on beforehand.

Feel free to respond for more details.

Huge Loss of nearly $300k . - Greedy and Unethical and kept touting their product knowing it was going down – Been with Dixons for 12 years - at first all good but their advice deteriorated. We were advised to over invest in URF and kept doing so despite our concerns with its deteriorating state. We were concerned with the way Alan Dixon was managing the fund and his lavish lifestyle . We have lost nearly $829k as assessed by ASIC - never to be… Read more

recovered . We are not able to ear this ever again as retired. This has significantly affected our lifestyle and I have several health issues which are dependant on those funds. They will not do anything about trying to reimburse us or even reimburse us for the fees charged for bad strategic advice and investment decisions made. We have joined a class action with Shine Lawyers. ASIC has taken them to court so let's see what they can achieve.

Unfortunately to leave now would mean that realise our losses. All the while they have been creaming off large fees for themselves. Dixons stacked my portfolio with their own products and when things went pear shaped. This is an arrogant and uncaring company.

Worst SMSF administrators – I've been with Dixon Advisory for several years, Dixon push their own products ahead of others, practically every investment presented, has Dixons fingers in the pie. and don't mention Evan Dixon Limited ED1 shares... what a flop.

Dont go near these Duds – Invested my SMSF with Dixons 5 years ago,the nett result being we were steered into their in house brands,after paying $7000/year to receive their "advice" we are now $120,000 + down with no real hope of gaining any back even though 2 board members operating the URL scam walked away with $26 Mill each. I was never offered compensation for their… Read more

tainted advice to reinstate my losses. I thankfully departed Dixons some 3 months ago to a new advisor who is thankfully restructuring my portfolio from the train wreck of the Dixon years

Presents well but Poor Performance for High Fees – We were with Dixons for 12 years. For the first few years it was OK, but never really achieved anything comparable or better than industry funds. In the last few years before we left a number of in house Dixon products either made losses during restructuring or have paper losses of 30% to 90% of the original investment. At the same time we were… Read more

being charged high fees. In addition to the the poor investment performance the administrative fees and the fees within the in-house products the SMSF lost money long before the 2020 downturn. The overall experience with Dixons was extremely disappointing especially compared to my SMSF management situation since leaving 18months ago. Further, the Dixon experience has left us considerably disadvantaged as we start to contemplate retirement and an income from our SMSF.

Keep away from Dixon's Advisory! – I was with Dixon's for about 6 years and during that time my super balance steadily declined because I took their advice and invested in their high fee, poor performance funds. I was continually assured that these funds would perform well in the long term. I am very glad I am now longer with them, however I lost a lot of money. Show details

Be wary of using this company for structuring a SMSF portfolio – I did have an SMSF ''managed" by Dixons for about 5 years but fortunately severed my relationship with them about 16 months ago, closed the SMSF and moved all funds to a better performing industry fund. I found Dixons (now Evans Dixon) to be very helpful in the administrative side of the SMSF but I received poor financial advice on numerous… Read more

investments including the URF (and related fund raising entities), NEW and some other funds owned and managed by Dixons.

It only became apparent to me after several years with Dixons that the first priority of their financial advisory team was to promote Dixon products with little regard to the balance of my portfolio. They also recommended investing directly in the Evans Dixon IPO (which I fortunately declined). I guess I am one of the more fortunate ones who exited Dixons prior to the URF unit price crash and did not take too much of a financial hit.

I am do not understand why Dixons are still getting 5 star ratings for their financial services. Maybe 5 stars for administrative service but I would be very wary of using their financial advisory services - do your homework first on any of their recommendations and make sure the investments are at least listed on the ASX so you can sell them more easily. Quite a few were not listed and consequently difficult to sell.

Very disappointed with Dixons' duds – We've had our SMSF with Dixons for over a decade. The SMSF administration team continues to function well, with good advice to clients when there are changes in the superannuation regime, and prompt and helpful responses when we get in touch. But the investment advisory side has failed us. As Dixons has increasingly become both the investment… Read more

adviser AND the investment provider, we've been concerned about the obvious potential conflict of interest. We have raised this directly with Dixons, and been assured that they are very conscious of the need to ensure clients come first. The investment vehicles they create have been described as being designed to give clients profitable opportunities to invest in markets that would otherwise be inaccessible to retail investors like us. Acting on the advice we received, over time, our portfolio has come to be dominated by Dixons' vehicles.

After being burnt with ED1, we discovered some scathing articles about Dixons, including the helpful reviews here on ProductReview, especially in relation to URF. We were shocked to see URF described as a [Irrelevant Content Removed], and to read in detail about the incredible fee-gouging that has been going on. With hindsight we can see we've been guided into a number of poor investments and advised to stay with them despite poor performance, to our great cost. It is hard to believe we would have received such advice from an independent adviser who was acting in our best interests.

So we have decided to move away from Dixons. After asking others on this website for advice, the responses were helpful, thank you all who replied. We've decided to go to an industry fund. But it's not that simple: as well as being poor performers, many of the Dixons vehicles are almost impossible to liquidate, so we're still working on that. In the meantime we will see what happens re the URF-related class action by Shine Lawyers and will consider a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Dixon Advisory have become fee greedy and lazy – I joined Dixons in 2012 and they were OK but their advice deteriorated. I was advised to over invest in URF and NEW. I have lost over $150,000 through Dixons bad advice and I have been trapped into investing too much in Cordish Dixon IV and can't get out with forfeiting my initial investment and paying all sorts of penalties. All the while they… Read more

have been creaming off large fees for themselves. I put the off market investments, CDIV & Fort St up up for sale months ago but there are no buyers Dixons stacked my portfolio with their own products and when things went sour they had a conflict of interest and told me to hold when they should have told me to sell. I live on my super and thanks to Dixons my life has been severely impacted. Stay away from Dixons they not the company they used to be. I would love to speak to other dissatisfied Dixon investors. How they are getting 5 stars is beyond me, one has to wonder who is writing such glowing reviews. I am 70 yrs, I should never have been advised to invest in this way, I was naive and Dixons have destroyed me. We need to unite against this arrogant and uncaring company.

Investment advise is conflicted – This company started out as a reasonably objective investor of its clients funds. Unfortunately over the years it has has become a fee gouging organisation which continually recommends low performing products which it has a financial interest in.

Asked To Leave – I started a self managed superfund with this organisation but when they realised I was not generating enough revenue they asked us to leave. Their is nothing further to say however I only recently discovered this fact due to a recent interaction with this organisation.

Dixon Advisory Review – We have been clients of Dixon Advisory for 12 months, and we have been very satisfied with the decision to move from our previous advisor on our SMSF. In particular we have found the regular communications beneficial, and the high standard of Customer Service provided by Laura and Nicky to requests we have made to Dixon. Their response times to our requests have always been exceptional, and greatly appreciated. Show details

Dixon Advisory – We have been clients of Dixon Advisory since 2012 when we established our SMSF. Since then we have been very satisfied with our choice of Dixon and the high standard of service provided by their staff. We appreciate the independence of the advice offered, and the high level of competence provided by all of the staff with whom we have dealt. The… Read more

assistance provided has been excellent and rewarding by staff capable, knowledgeable, experienced and proficient. Although the service is not cheap, in our opinion it represents value for the broad spectrum of services provided in a personable and approachable manner. We live in a major regional centre of NSW and although all Dixon’s seminars are available on-line it would be very much appreciated if an occasional event could be offered elsewhere other than a capital city.

CONFLICTED ADVICE – The Hayne Royal Commission outed the high flyers like AMP and the big banks. left hidden in the weeds is Evans Dixon and others. I was with Dixon Advisory after taking over my deceased parents SMSF managed by Dixons (only 3 years thankfully). Whilst I thought at the time they did a good job- Post GFC everyone did well as markets rebounded. This… Read more

hid their conflicted vertically integrated model. (See Hayne's opinions on AMPs vertical integration)

I transferred part of my deceased parents URF holdings to my personal name and soon after sold out, thankfully before it plummeted below the price I inherited it at.

My intention for the fund was to hold real estate in my SMSF. It became clear that since I would be buying little if any of Dixons own investment products they made it clear they did not want me as a client. I left Dixons 4 years ago.

The extraordinarily high costs of managing my quite simple fund at Dixons was in my view-unjustifiable. Reading articles in the AFR and other online references made me realize just how much I was paying to Dixons- especially through my ownership of the URF units. Paying out distributions through debt and by selling down assets in the fund has a finite life yet they still presumably direct new clients into this fund.

I suspect that many of their clients are in my late parents position- A healthy balance of $2m+ of funds but no longer the wherewithal to understand or inclination to continue running an SMSF. Perhaps the spouse that used to look after their superannuation had passed away. What is left is an uninformed widow/er that relies completely on the reputation of respected industry elders like Max Walsh and Daryl Dixon.

From my perspective the one aspect of Dixon that was outstanding was the administration of the fund. This may well be worth the high costs if only the financial advisors were exclusively choosing investment products that Dixons did not have a financial interest in. My advise is be careful engaging a conflicted advisor.

High management fees and conflicted advice. Stay Away! – I was a client of Dixon Advisory for 10 years and have consistently lost my capital on the recommendations from Dixon advisors and their broker RBS Morgans of Hervey Bay (Macquarie Fortress Notes, URF and Solar Energy). My advisor (name deleted) said he had invested in URF because of the yield and I should do the same. However, the high fees that… Read more

Dixon take from this product erode its value. The dividends are being paid from capital raisings as new shares are issued. I am glad I have now left Dixon as I would have lost 50% of my investment capital for a mere 5% yield. Dixon now almost exclusively steers clients to its own products. They also limited the banks I could use to those they receive commissions from. Although their admin side is good, steer clear of Dixon's in-house products with high fees and conflicted advice. It's a pity they weren't considered by the Hayne Commission as Dixon (like the banks) has developed and promoted the vertical integration model to the detriment of clients.

Custom-Designed to Weather the Storms – Our SMSF was first set up in 1996. After 2007, with little background, I have relied heavily on Dixon Advisory to help me navigate and better understand the many complexities involved in managing my retirement finances. From the heady years of 25%, the gloom of the GFC to the current doldrums, the changing teams have worked tirelessly to meet my… Read more

needs by keeping up with national and global trends. The organisation has seen considerable growth and employs personable, energetic, versatile and dedicated young advisers in whom I put significant trust. They have educated me, through personal advice and many seminars, to appreciate the forces which propel the ups and downs of "the bottom line". My current investment and fund advisers, Andrew, Komal and their colleagues, are professional, patient, thorough, and adaptable to the many often burdensome changes effected by market trends or government policy. My portfolio is steady and for the moment sufficiently diversified to withstand too many shocks. As i continue to age I know I will be in safe hands and my family will transition easily into the Dixon world.

Good service – With Dixon for eight years. Their regular advice and market insights have been very valuable to my decisions. As always, there have been winners and losers, but overall my portfolio has performed very well. I am a well satisfied customer.

Terrific service – I have been with Dixon Advisory for more than 10 years and am generally very satisfied with their recommendations which are based on a personal profile they have prepared, and regularly review, based on many considerations including my appetite for risk. I particularly value the personalised service I have been getting on a regular basis from Rahulan, George and Joy, who are always responsive, knowledgeable, and unstinting in their advice.

Dixon Advisory the place to find well informed advisors – I have been with Dixon Advisory for 9 years. During that time my portfolio has shown pleasing results both in growth of value and the care taken to insure that my assets are well distributed over a range of investment products. The advisors and accountants that I speak to on a regular basis are always well informed and courteous. I have happily recommended this company to friends and family over the years. A satisfied customer