I left Maddern Financial after 4 years of getting conflicting advice and finding their directors to be unprofessional and money hungry. They talk the talk but can't walk the walk. Ask too many questions and I soon found out how unacceptable that was. Giving feedback was an issue that resulted in a hostile and personally disparaging onslaught.

In my most recent correspondence I enquired of their accountants why I incurred a $500 fee for an overdue tax return and asked for it be waived as it was their late preparation which was the source. They told me to get my new accountant to sort it out! Really – pay someone who is not connected to the problem to sort out a fee created by my ex-accountant ....?

With a NFP charity that I run they had again taken ages to do the financial statement, were paid promptly and weeks later we discovered that the ATO had not received our BAS statement to refund our GST to benefit the community. On contacting Maddern’s to enquire about the charity's GST which had not been refunded, the response was again curt and unhelpful, 'ask your new accountants' and when pushing for an answer got "you are very rude here and totally out of line. I would suggest that as a charity provider, you act in a more charitable way." I can only assume they wanted me to be charitable to her by not asking any more questions...?!

Multiple time wasting correspondences later, they threatened to send another invoice if I asked anything more about checking into the problem! I stood my ground as trustee for the charity and finally they admitted that they had lost my signed authority and never lodged the BAS. No apology and a curt email saying 'send us a copy of our files' - they hadn't even kept copies. What a mess. Lots more negative experiences that beggars belief. Thank goodness we're out of there.

There are many better options available where you will get really professional and transparent financial advisers - steer clear of Maddern’s.