Bridging the Advice Gap: Why Australia Needs a New Era of Financial Planning

Australia is currently facing a "perfect storm" in the financial advice sector. Despite being a nation with one of the most sophisticated superannuation systems in the world, the average Australian is finding it harder—and more expensive—than ever to access professional financial guidance.

At Amply, we believe that quality advice shouldn't be a luxury reserved for the wealthy. To understand why we built Amply, we must first look at the systemic failures currently locking millions of Australians out of the advice market.

This side-by-side comparison tells a powerful story for your Australian audience. It shows that in just seven years, the "Advice Gap" has expanded from a significant issue to a full-blown crisis, with the "Advised" portion of the population shrinking by more than half.

The Cost Crisis: Why Advice is Out of Reach

The primary barrier to entry for most Australians is the sheer cost. Recent industry data from Adviser Ratings (2025) shows that the median ongoing advice fee has surged to $4,668 per year, an 18% jump from the previous year alone. For many, the initial cost of a Statement of Advice (SOA) can range between $3,500 and $6,000+.

Why is it so expensive? Because under the current model, personal financial advice is incredibly labor-intensive. A traditional advisor must manually:

• Conduct deep-dive "Fact Finds" on client assets and liabilities.

• Perform complex risk profiling.

• Research thousands of financial products to find the "best interest" fit.

• Navigate a mountain of regulatory paperwork to produce a compliant SOA.

This process can take upwards of 20 to 30 hours of manual work per client. When you factor in the overheads of running a compliant practice, advisors simply cannot afford to take on "lower-balance" clients—the very people who need help with budgeting, debt, and superannuation the most.

The Shrinking Pool: Where Have All the Advisors Gone?

The supply side of the equation is equally dire. Since 2019, the number of registered financial advisors in Australia has plummeted from over 28,000 to approximately 15,500.

This "Advisor Exodus" was triggered by several factors:

1. Increased Education Standards: New requirements mandated university degrees and professional exams, leading many veteran advisors to retire early.

2. Compliance Fatigue: In the wake of the Hayne Royal Commission, the administrative burden skyrocketed.

3. Rising Professional Indemnity Costs: Insurance premiums for advisors have increased significantly, making small-scale practices less viable.

With fewer advisors and higher costs, we have reached a point where only about 1 in 10 Australians actually receive professional financial advice.

The Social Impact: The Poorer Australians are Missing Out

It is a cruel irony that the Australians who have the most to gain from making their money work harder are the ones most excluded. Research from the Financial Planning Association (FPA) consistently shows that "advised" Australians enjoy higher levels of financial confidence and lower stress.

However, the barrier for those on lower incomes is systemic. A study from the University of South Australia (2022) found that the current cost of advice is more than double what most low-income earners are willing or able to pay, effectively locking them out of life insurance and retirement security. Furthermore, Investment Trends reports that while 11.8 million Australians have unmet advice needs, the average unadvised person is only willing to pay approximately $570 for help—a staggering gap when compared to the $3,500+ industry reality.

When advice is locked behind a $5,000 paywall, it systemically excludes working Australians and everyday families from the essential wealth-building strategies to secure their financial future and build long-term resilience.

The Australian Reality

Metric	2019	2026
Total Advisers	~28,000	~15,150
Median Advice Fee	~$2,500	~$4,668
Australians per Adviser	900	1,706
Unadvised Population	~75%	~90%

Source: ASIC Financial Advisers Register (Jan 2026); Adviser Ratings Landscape Report (2025); FAAA Value of Advice Index (2025).

How Amply Changes the Game: Democratizing Financial Advice

Amply was founded to solve this efficiency problem at its core. We recognized that if we can reduce the time it takes to produce advice, we can reduce the cost of that advice.

Amply automates the heavy lifting of the advice process. Our platform handles the data aggregation, the product comparison, and the compliance mapping in the background. By removing the manual "back-office" friction, we empower advisors to shift their focus from paperwork back to people.

Our mission is simple: we are democratizing financial advice. We want to transform the Statement of Advice process from a barrier into a gateway. At Amply, we are aiming to turn a process that currently takes weeks of manual drafting into one that takes just minutes.

By drastically reducing the "cost-to-serve," we enable advisors to profitably help those Australians who were previously "uneconomical" to service. We have seen far too many cases where advisors are forced to refuse clients simply because they do not meet a minimum asset threshold—leaving those with the most to gain with nowhere to turn. At Amply, we aren't just building software; we are bridging the advice gap for a fairer financial future.

References & Background Studies

• Adviser Ratings (2025): Australian Financial Advice Landscape Report. (Median fee data and 67% five-year cost increase).

• ASIC Financial Adviser Register (2024/25): Advisor headcount and industry exit trends.

• Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) / FPA: 2025 Value of Advice Index and submissions regarding advisor shortages.

• Investment Trends (2024): Financial Advice Report. (Data on the 11.8 million Australians with unmet needs and the $570 "willingness to pay" threshold).

• KPMG/FSC White Paper: Research on the compliance burden and the 24-hour average timeframe to produce advice.

• University of South Australia (2022): Study on advice reform impact on lower socio-economic groups. (Research highlighting how costs exceed low-income payment capacity by 200%+).

• Rice Warner / ASFA: Submissions to the Retirement Income Review discussing the "pricing out" of lower-income clients due to regulatory complexity.