In July 2006 Bob Nissen was desperate. The 60-year-old's finances weren't in great shape and his daughter, a paranoid schizophrenic, was becoming increasingly dependent on him. He turned to a trusted financial advisory firm in his home town of Cairns called Meridien Wealth, an authorised representative of Financial Wisdom, which was in turn owned by Commonwealth Bank. Nissen met with Meridien Wealth's star financial planner, Rollo Sherriff.
Commonwealth Bank paid out millions in compensation. ''I told him the priorities were to look after my daughter. And the next priority was to get my house sorted out because it was falling down around my ears,'' he says.
For more on this story, watch 'Banking Bad' on Four Corners, ABC, 8.30pm, Monday.