“Middle Australia stands to benefit most because comprehensive personal advice is out of reach for many, but help, guidance and specific purpose simple advice at pivotal moments would significantly improve their financial wellbeing,” said Andrew Gale, chair of the Actuaries Institute’s Help, Guidance and Advice (HGA) Working Group.
It’s an idea that has been widely understood and much talked about as the number of financial advisers essentially halved in the years following the financial services royal commission.
Getting advice to more Australians is only going to get more important if the exodus of advisers due to the 1 January 2026 education deadline is even close to as severe as many have predicted.
Combined with the intergenerational transfer of wealth and rising costs – which will only be more severe with fewer advisers to share the regulatory levy burden – and the situation for “middle Australia” looks even worse.
Looking to solve this issue, the Actuaries Institute has published the HGA framework, which it said would provide a structure under which financial institutions could “confidently deliver a wide spectrum of quality and affordable support to their customers”.
According to Gale, this would expand access to basic financial facts through to guidance and suggestions on retirement goals, as well as comprehensive personal advice, which he called “out of reach for many”.
“Help, guidance and specific purpose simple advice at pivotal moments would significantly improve [middle Australians’] financial wellbeing,” Gale said.
“Our framework provides the architecture that will enable millions of people of all ages to receive support in different levels of complexity and that fits their individual needs.
“We have a tsunami of retirees coming over the next decade, but many don’t want or need or cannot afford full, comprehensive financial advice. Giving them help and guidance on common issues – such as age pension entitlements and how to think about paying down debt and moving superannuation to a retirement phase account – would allow them to retire with greater confidence.”
He noted that it’s not just retirees that need help, adding that younger Australians would also benefit from greater access to help and guidance, particularly on topics like super consolidation, budgeting and life insurance.
The Actuaries Institute said its paper, Financial advice reform and help, guidance and advice, was developed after “extensive consultation with superannuation funds, consumer groups, industry and professional bodies”.
Alongside the broader access to help and guidance, the Actuaries Institute said it would also “significantly expand the capacity of financial advisers, accountants, superannuation funds and digital tools to provide support”.
“Guidance currently operates in a regulatory grey area between help and advice. It provides an important bridge between providing someone with basic financial information and personalised advice,” Gale said.
“It is widely seen as a scalable and cost-effective mechanism for delivering meaningful support.
“We would like to see greater regulatory and legislative recognition for guidance so, for example, super funds and their trustees have more certainty in the support they can provide their members.”
He added that the under existing regulations, all financial advice is treated as equally complex and fails to distinguish between simple guidance and comprehensive planning.
“Overall, we believe the emerging Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms and legislation represent good reform initiatives,” Gale said.
“We also believe that further regulatory reform will be required post the DBFO reforms, particularly relating to the acknowledgement and greater utilisation of guidance.”
