This article is an edited extract from the Professional Planner ‘Guide on Financial Advice in 2026’, download the full copy of the guide here.
Produced in partnership with AMP.
Advice specialisation will increase in 2026 as advice firms look to differentiate themselves, solve their clients’ biggest problems and lift fees and profitability.
Retirement advice, including managing decumulation, maximising income and aged care advice (for both clients and their parents), will emerge as a key area of specialisation.
While most financial advice businesses already list retirement planning as a core service, their knowledge and understanding of retirement, and the challenges facing retirees and pre-retirees and how best to address them will deepen in 2026.
Every day advisers are seeing first-hand the financial, emotional and physical impact of retirement. They are observing the evolution of their clients’ needs, spending habits, and hopes and fears, the further they get into their retirement journey.
This specialisation is already driving a number of positive developments, including higher client engagement, multi-generational advice opportunities and product innovation, underpinned by regulatory changes. These changes include the 2017 removal of tax barriers to the development of Innovative Retirement Income Streams (IRIS) and the 2022 Retirement Income Covenant, which requires super trustees to develop a retirement income strategy for members.
In 2022, AMP, via their Platform North, launched MyNorth Lifetime, a market-first hybrid retirement solution combining flexible account-based pensions with the guaranteed income features of annuities, allowing retirees to receive higher, lifelong payments while maintaining investment control and potentially improving Age Pension eligibility.
In the next 12-18 months, a number of platforms and product manufacturers are expected to follow suit and launch similar solutions.
To ensure that investors and advisers understand the benefits and trade-offs of IRIS products, the industry must invest heavily in ongoing education and training.
Retirement is a long game
Our data reveals that financial advisers who have started to use IRIS strategies now consider a lifetime income solution for around 80 per cent of their clients, whereas they previously only considered such solutions for around 20 per cent of their clients before IRIS strategies were available.
The wealth management industry has made steady progress improving awareness and understanding of IRIS, and usage is increasing, but this is a long game.
In advice, retirement leaders and laggards are emerging. In 2026, the specialists will start to pull away from the pack of generalists.
While advisers have been successfully helping clients plan and manage their retirement for over 30 years, the implementation of their advice has been incumbered by the limited tools and solutions in the market, namely lifetime annuities and account-based pensions.
They are both an important part of the retirement income puzzle, but they have been inadequate at building retirement confidence.
Pleasingly, our analyses show that advised clients in MyNorth Lifetime are spending roughly 60 per cent more than they previously did – once clients overcome FORO (the fear of running out), they are empowered to confidently enjoy retirement by spending in a more optimal manner.
The emerging cohort of retirement advice specialists will have a deep knowledge of the entire range of retirement income strategies and solutions and how they complement and interact with each other.
Armed with knowledge and experience, they will – and are already – assisting clients to not only build a stable, reliable income stream but bolster wealth in retirement to protect against inflation.
It is my belief that clients of specialist retirement advisers will be more confident and spend more in retirement.
These are exciting times for advisers and their clients because retirement should be exciting.
Ben Hillier is director of retirement at AMP.
