A Padua Wealth Data report has revealed which state and capital city has the highest concentration of financial advisers, with one state showing only a double-digit population.
No one in the advice will be surprised to hear that the overall number of individuals on the Financial Advice Register (FAR) is now hovering around a historic low of just 15,012 as at 2 July.
But where are they actually residing?
Melbourne came in as the nation’s advice capital with 3,641 concentrated within the city, capturing almost a quarter (24.3 per cent) of the profession, while Victoria overall has 4,284 (28.5 per cent).
Sydney was a close second at 3,320 (22.1 per cent) but the report explained that, because it was focusing on the metro city region, areas such as the Central Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong weren’t captured by this statistic, excluding a “meaningful share of NSW advisers”.
When taking a state view, NSW came in above Victoria at 4,542 advisers or 30.3 per cent of all financial advisers in Australia.
Regardless of if you focus on states of cities, though, the pair continue to dominate the Australian advice industry, capturing 46.4 per cent across the two major cities and 58.8 per cent on a state level.
Looking outside the two major cities, Brisbane and Perth were also relatively close with 1,684 and 1,411 advisers, respectively, and Adelaide rounded out the top five with just 928.
Adviser population by capital city metro regions
City
Number of advisers
Per cent of profession
Melbourne
3,641
24.3
Sydney
3,320
22.1
Brisbane
1,684
11.2
Perth
1,411
9.4
Adelaide
928
6.2
Source: Padua Wealth Data, July 2026
The overall population by state followed a similar pattern with Queensland in third at 3,093 advisers, Western Australia at 1,531 and South Australia just above four digits at 1,010.
As for the three remaining states, the ACT and Tasmania both had less than 2 per cent of advisers with a total of just 260 and 243, respectively.
By far the smallest advice population, according to the report, can be found in the Northern Territory where there are just 28.
The report subsequently identified a significant disparity between the number of advisers operating in the Northern Territory and the state’s total population – 267,000 – with a ratio of just 0.19, which it said could be partly a result of small and far spread of residents in the region.
Advisers by state
State
Number of advisers
Per cent of profession
NSW
4,542
30.3
Victoria
4,284
28.5
Queensland
3,093
20.6
Western Australia
1,531
10.2
South Australia
1,010
6.7
ACT
260
1.7
Tasmania
243
1.6
Northern Territory
28
0.2
Source: Padua Wealth Data, July 2026
While the results are largely unsurprising, the report noted that, no matter which state you look at, there is a clear concentration within capital cities which signal a greater accessibility gap for regional areas that are often disproportionally older and most in need.
“In the smaller states, advice is almost entirely a capital-city function, with very little presence beyond the metropolitan core. This matters because it compounds the capacity ceiling.
“Regional and rural Australia skews older than the metros, and the 60-plus cohort is precisely where advice need is most acute. The Australians with the highest needs are therefore disproportionately located where adviser coverage is thinnest.
“This access problem can only be addressed by changing how advice reaches the Australians who do not live near a capital city, which points once again toward scalable, technology-supported delivery.”
Earlier this month, KPMG highlighted 10 emerging cities which are ripe for advice expansion including Cairns, Geelong and Newcastle. The so-called ‘enterprising cities’ are growing their populations faster and increasing participation rates.
Enterprising cities’ population surpassed 10 million people in 2025, representing growth of 1.8 per cent compared to 1.5 per cent more broadly while over a third of Australian workers live in these cities.