Australians seek value from advice well beyond investment returns

Australians seek out financial advice mainly because they believe an adviser knows more than they do, and the drive to maximise investment returns is receding as a compelling reason to hire one.

Advisers’ knowledge is the most common reason Australians give for valuing their services, nominated by 63 per cent of the 2058 people surveyed for the 2026 version of Colonial First State’s The Empowered Australian Report.

Next, 39 per cent want to be sure they are doing the right thing, 32 per cent feel more confident with an adviser making decisions for them, and 30 per cent think an adviser saves them time. 

Better returns and having everything in one place were prominent reasons in the previous edition. Both are diminishing, the report says.

Managing director of Melbourne-based financial advice firm Innovayt, Nick Reilly, says the finding tracks with what his clients say.

“I always have said that people don’t care about returns as long as the returns are thereabouts, as in, in line with the market,” Reilly tells Professional Planner.

“People just want to know that everything’s going to be okay.”

He says tools and products now handle the investment piece “better than we can handle it ourselves, and at a really cheap cost”. Reilly says that the value advisers add is giving people peace of mind.

The CFS report shows that concern about the global economy has climbed from 49 per cent to 63 per cent since the last survey, and concern about the Australian economy from 54 per cent to 62 per cent. The cost of living worries the most Australians (76 per cent), ahead of inflation (69 per cent) and housing affordability (65 per cent). 

Renters are the most worried, with 32 per cent concerned about the long term and 33 per cent about the short term. Reilly says he sees concerns over the cost of living more in his firm’s mortgage business than in its planning business. 

“You don’t get people coming to you in the advice business saying, ‘Hey, my cash flow is not great. Can you help?’” he says. 

“I would think most advisers would say that, and maybe it’s just because of what advisers actually chase from an ideal-client point of view. They really don’t have the models to service those clients.”

The first call

The report says clients most commonly first seek advice when they start thinking about retirement (26 per cent), followed by an improvement in their finances (24 per cent). Other prompts come from external sources: a friend or family member (21 per cent), a super fund (19 per cent), another professional (16 per cent) or a bank (14 per cent). 

Some 44 per cent of clients say they regret not having sought advice sooner, and Reilly says clients often arrive late to the advice party.  

Reilly says he places clients on a bell curve of financial stress. In their earlier years clients move up the curve, “and at the top of the bell curve is the mortgage, kids at school – it’s definitely the most expensive, but also the most stressful time in your life”.

“I used to have this conversation with people to give them confidence or comfort that they were only talking about wealth creation [when they got to] their 50s, because they would be like, ‘We’re too late’, and I’d be like, ‘You probably are, and you could have made some significant inroads, but here’s the bell curve, and here’s what you were dealing with’.”

But then kids leave school and the mortgage reduces and “people always come [to an adviser] when they start to go down that bell curve”.

“I just think it’s a headspace thing more than anything,” Reilly says.

“They just don’t want to know about it, or they don’t have time to sit down and actually think about it.”

Cost still a barrier

Australians are open to advice, but many still think it is out of reach, the report says.

Among Australians without an adviser, 36 per cent do not use one because they believe advice is unaffordable. Most of those open to advice (72 per cent) would consider it at a reasonable cost.

Reilly says an ideal client typically pays $4000 to $5000 for a statement of advice and around the same each year in ongoing fees. AI has doubled the output of his paraplanner, and its application across a practice could significantly reduce the cost to serve and allow more episodic advice to be delivered more cheaply.

“I think we could easily knock 20 per cent off the front-end cost and more off the ongoing,” Reilly says. 

“I think there’s a real place for, ‘hey, come and see us once every two years, and we’ll charge you for our time’.”

He says the industry currently has no robust model that makes sense for those clients, and value is not the problem. 

“It’s not so much demonstrating the value because I think the value is there. They just don’t want to provide that advice. Most firms are going minimal clients, maximum fees.”

The report shows that most Australians (81 per cent) want their super fund to suggest ways to grow their super, and almost three-quarters (73 per cent) want it to offer financial advice.

Advisers are trusted by 80 per cent of Australians, behind only a partner or spouse (82 per cent). AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity are trusted by 38 per cent, ahead of YouTube and social media influencers (both 37 per cent). 

Under 40s use finance websites (up from 20 per cent to 28 per cent), YouTube (15 per cent to 23 per cent) and influencers (11 per cent to 18 per cent) more frequently than they used to.

Reilly says the sheer volume of available information leaves clients overwhelmed and uncertain. 

“People are going to AI or going to online social media platforms and seeing all these things come at them, and sometimes it’s a contrasting position depending on who you’re watching, or what large language model you’re on,” he says.

“Some people just need to come and speak to someone, to know that they’re not doing something wrong.”