Less than two weeks out from 2026, the profession is waiting to see what the total adviser loss will be from the new education requirements with predictions ranging from 900 to more than 2,300.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In accordance with\u00a0the\u00a0Corporation Amendment (Professional Standards of Financial Advisers) Act\u00a0passed in 2016, individuals who are unable to meet the experience pathway criteria and wish to continue\u00a0operating\u00a0as an adviser past 30 December 2025\u00a0are required to\u00a0meet higher minimum education and training standards to continue as a financial adviser.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In anticipation of the upcoming deadline,\u00a0ASIC issued its \u201cfinal warning\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to the advice industry at the start of December, urging advisers and licensees to ensure their Financial Adviser Register (FAR) records were up to date before the end of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Based on the FAR at the time, ASIC said some 2,326 relevant providers\u00a0of the 15,469 on the register\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0flagged their use of the experience pathway but were\u00a0yet to meet the incoming education standards, signalling a potential 15 per cent decline in\u00a0adviser\u00a0numbers before the end of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n In September, the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA)\u00a0flagged the potential loss as a mounting issue<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0a webinar, putting their prediction at\u00a0the at around 1,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Notably, both Centrepoint Alliance and Morgans told Money Management they expect little to no losses as a result of the education deadline. However, both noted concerns regarding how the overall losses will impact advice industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n Centrepoint\u00a0Alliance\u00a0chief executive John Shuttleworth said he expects they will lose a maximum of six advisers at the end of this year, while suggesting that the loss for others may be far more significant.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the numbers to watch will be\u00a0how many advisers roll off\u00a0as a result of\u00a0the education requirements that kick in from 1 January. We have a whole education team working through it. Our loss will be a maximum of six,\u00a0probably even\u00a0less than that so,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0going to have minimal impact.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting to see some of the other groups, and particularly those with limited licence advisers, and whether they bother to meet the educational standards or they just let their licence lapse, which might have a bit of an impact on some of their numbers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In July,\u00a0Padua Wealth Data founder Colin Williams noted the strong outflow of advisers from the limited advice sector\u00a0earlier this year,\u00a0saying the sector is \u201cdead in the water\u201d<\/a>.\u00a0At the time he reported a loss of some 132 limited advisers, adding that they would\u00a0likely continue\u00a0their decline as the year progressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morgans organisation enhancement manager, adviser and branches, Aldo\u00a0Boccalatte\u00a0said the AFSL\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0be losing even a single adviser due to the education changes following a five-year\u00a0push.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re getting all our people\u00a0all across\u00a0the line, which is,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0all good, but there are other licensees that are\u00a0probably going\u00a0to see some people retiring, or people exiting, or what have you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Padua Wealth Data\u2019s final\u00a0weekly\u00a0update\u00a0until early January,\u00a0the week ending 18 December<\/a>\u00a0saw a net loss of 58 advisers, bringing the total down to just 15,373. It is important to note however there were 25 new entrants this week meaning the loss of experienced advisers is\u00a0actually 77.\u00a0<\/p>\n As he signed off for the year, Williams said, \u201cWe expect the reporting to start showing steep losses from\u00a08\u00a0Jan and will progress through January until everyone returns to the office, typically after Australia Day\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reflecting on the state of the profession in the wake of the 2019 Royal Commission,\u00a0Boccalatte\u00a0said the steady outflow of advisers \u2013 whether that be due to retirement or simply leaving the profession\u00a0\u2013\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0being rebalanced\u00a0by incoming talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at about 15,500, give or take, retail advisers. We were that back in 2019\/2020.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0put in\u00a0roughly about\u00a01,500 PYs and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0still at the same level.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0still this exodus going out, and\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0not replenishing anywhere at the same speed.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0going to be a shortage of advisers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While there has been significant emphasis, particularly from the FAAA, on getting new entrants into the profession,\u00a0Boccalatte\u00a0said they are not a\u00a0fix to the adviser shortage challenge\u00a0right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe other reality is that if someone completes the PY,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0only at the starting point.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0not a proficient, high-functioning adviser.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0still doing their craft, and\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0got programmes under our Morgans Academy to help them develop those skills, but that takes time. So,\u00a0professional year people\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0a light switch.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0the\u00a04-5 year\u00a0replenishment concept.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He added: \u201cFor 13 December, if the rumours are right and we get further leakage, then that\u2019s going to make it quite interesting to see what\u2019s going to happen in terms of the adviser supply and availability out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking at what can be done to stem\u00a0the outflow of advisers, WT Financial founder and managing director Keith Cullen said one of his top priorities for 2026 is \u201cto see the restrictive \u2018Relevant Degree\u2019 regime overhauled so we can get back to growing the profession\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February, former Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones\u00a0said he would be introducing measures to reform financial adviser education requirements to \u201ccreate a sustainable pathway for new advisers to enter the profession\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Speaking at Momentum Media\u2019s Election 2025 breakfast even in April, Jones and then shadow treasurer Angus Taylor\u00a0shared bipartisan support<\/a>\u00a0for the education reforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the shared recognition of the education bottleneck and the Labor\u00a0government\u2019s assurances that it would address this and other critical issues following the federal election in May, Mulino is yet to make any progress on this issue since\u00a0taking up the\u00a0financial services portfolio<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Urging the minister to make the education issue a priority, Cullen said, \u201cThe current rules\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0just slow down progress\u2014they lock out capable people who want to join the profession. A modern, flexible, and practical education pathway is essential if we\u00a0truly believe\u00a0in the future of advice\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than two weeks out from 2026, the profession is waiting to see what the total adviser loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-206704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}