Our audiences: Independent Financial Advisers

Independent and non-aligned advisers are making a surge in the sector as customers seek genuine, non-conflicted advice to support their wealth building strategies, with numbers of advisers expected to grow rapidly in the years ahead.

The Australian Corporations Act sets out a formal definition of “independent” financial advice provision, which places limitations on the types of remuneration and business model structures available to financial planning professionals seeking to use the term in a business context.

It is estimated there are between 40 and 100 financial planners in Australia that meet this criteria.

However, within the financial services industry, the term independent is used more colloquially to describe financial planners that are self-licensed (boutique) or licensed by companies not owned by or aligned to the major financial institutions.

This segment of the broader community is also referred to as the non-aligned financial advice sector and equates to roughly 20 per cent of the industry or 4-6,000 individual practitioners.