More than 61,000 grower investors have ploughed almost $3 billion into both companies' schemes which account for about half of the country's managed investment scheme (MIS) sales.

Dominic Alafaci, Collins House managing director and financial planner, said his firm was taking up many distressed clients following the collapse of the two biggest MIS businesses.

While Mr Alafaci said he did not recommend Timbercorp or Great Southern, he noted that many of the loans were full recourse which meant the lender could come after the borrower for any excess amount of money owed.

"From the cases I have seen most of these loans were non-limited recourse, which means the client is in a position of weakness," he said.

Adelaide Managed Funds (AMF), the responsible entity for the Adelaide Managed Funds asset backed yield trust (AYT), said it had an exposure of about $23.5 million to investor loans backed by Great Southern MIS.

The portfolio consisted of more than 1800 loans with an average size of less than $46,000 and had a weighted average seasoning of about 36 months, with the borrowers across every State and territory, it said.

"The loans are secured by woodlots and have full recourse to the underlying borrower. The loans are all now managed and serviced by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank," AMF chief executive, Bruce Speirs, said.

Several thousand MIS investors have a loan with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, understood to total about $500 million. The obligations of the underlying borrowers remain unchanged.

One of Timbercorp's divisions, Timbercorp Finance, has made $480 million in loans to grower investors.

An authorised Timbercorp representative, who is also an investor grower, said most of his clients would take out 100 per cent for the initial loan.

"There is no hard-and-fast rule. If they want to take the loan, it's on offer, and if they don't then they can pay it out. People could redraw on their home loans if they wanted to," he said.