Solving capacity constraints with people, systems and clear value: research

Capacity constraints are the biggest challenge facing financial advice firms globally, and the highest performing advice practices are tackling the issue through a combination of people, systems and a clear value proposition, according to the 2026 Dimensional Global Adviser Study. 

Dimensional runs the study as part of its practice management service to advisers and has gathered data for 16 years from more than 4000 participants in 16 countries. The global report includes 81 Australian and New Zealand firms, which together manage about $44.3 billion of client assets and serve 45,260 households.  

The average Australian and New Zealand firm has revenue of $3.1 million and the equivalent of 12 full-time staff. Turner says the report combines global and regional figures, but the findings are broadly consistent. 

High-performing firms (HPFs) are the best-performing quarter of the 81 firms, ranked on their combined results across revenue growth, client retention, employee retention, profit margin, and revenue per adviser. 

Australian and New Zealand firms nominated a lack of capacity as their biggest obstacle to growth for a second year running and Paul Turner, head of adviser group, Australia for Dimensional, tells Professional Planner the firms that are solving it most effectively have hired more people and hired the right people.  

They have also supported people with systems and processes that are repeatable, consistent and scalable, and developed a clear value proposition that matches services to client needs. They have a strong pipeline of referrals, convert more of them, and when they raise fees, clients barely blink. 

Turner says the study “helps firms organise their own thoughts around their own business to help them make decisions where they might create the best value”.  

“It’s not a diagnostic tool designed to say, this is where you should focus your attention because this is where your problems are,” he says. 

“It’s a tool that advice firms can look at, a whole bunch of metrics, and think about what they’re trying to achieve or the potential challenges, both operational [and] growth, that they’re facing. What are some of the things that other firms are doing?” 

The study found that the average Australian and New Zealand firm added 1.3 employees in 2025, but HPFs added 1.9 – almost half as many again. 

“They hire more, and they hire earlier, and they typically have more client-facing hires than others,” Turner says.  

“They’re thinking about how many people they have, but they’re also thinking about what exactly they do.” 

HPFs have 2.2 supporting employees per adviser, against 1.8 at other firms. Globally, advisers with three or more supporting employees bring in $33 million in new assets, 50 per cent more than the $22 million for those with fewer than three. 

“This allows senior advisers to spend less time on administrative tasks and more on business development activities,” the study says, and Turner adds that bare headcount is only part of it. 

“It’s not just who to hire. They look at how their teams are set up. Do they have a lead adviser to support advisers, and an analyst, for instance? Is it team-based servicing versus straight-line servicing? Do we have the right people in the right seats doing the right things?” he says. 

Staff costs, which the study calls human capital, are by far the largest expense for firms. HPFs spent 38 per cent of revenue on them in 2025, against 48 per cent at other firms. Dimensional says advisers should track how they spend their time and shift tasks that do not earn revenue to support staff. 

Repeatable processes 

The study says capacity constraints and the top operational challenges, implementing workflow processes and selecting and maintaining technology, are highly intertwined. It says client onboarding, reviews and account maintenance should be consistent and documented to reduce rework. 

Turner says high-performing firms support their people with systems that release capacity. 

“Are their systems and processes repeatable? Are people doing the roles getting the most capacity release because they’re all doing the same thing? They’re only doing the steps necessary in doing a particular task. Are they consistent and repeatable?” 

“It’s not so much which is the right hire. It’s learning the entirety of the people and the structure, and then the ratios, but also looking at systems, processes and technology, and other things as well. So, you can’t really do one without the other.” 

The study says 79 per cent of firms have a target client profile, a defined picture of the clients a firm most wants to serve. It says HPFs do not necessarily offer more services than other firms but are better at matching what they offer to what their ideal client needs. 

“High-performing firms who are clearer on their client value proposition deliver the right services for their segment,” Turner says.  

“They think about demographics, psychographics of their client. Then they build their resources, teams and the value proposition based on who they best serve.” 

New clients from referrals 

About half of new clients come from referrals. HPFs win 8.2 new households through referrals from existing clients for every 100 households, against 5.4 at other firms, and convert 65 per cent of potential clients, against 58 per cent. 

“Having a very clear value proposition, aligning the services of that value proposition to your client, means that everyone within the business is very clear about who they serve and how those clients get best value,” Turner says. 

“They are able to articulate that to those clients, and then those clients become bigger advocates for their business. So, they get more referrals in general and actually convert more of the referrals compared to other firms. 

“They can quickly articulate [that] we know people like you, we work with people like you, we know what you value, and these are the services that we’re going to deliver in this many meetings or this much content in any given year.” 

The study says the gap of 2.8 households a year adds up: at average revenue of $7900 per household, it is worth an extra $1.2 million of revenue over 10 years for every 100 existing clients. 

Fees up, clients stay 

More than two-thirds of firms (68 per cent) raised fees in 2025 and only one in 10 lowered them. The study says firms kept almost all their clients whichever way they went: 96.8 per cent of clients stayed with firms that raised fees, 97.6 per cent with firms that held fees steady, and 96.1 per cent with firms that cut them. 

“[Firms] who are clear about who they service and the service that they provide and how those people measure value, they’re very comfortable articulating and showcasing that value, and their clients see the value,” Turner says. 

“For those firms that don’t have a strong client value proposition or an ideal target profile, they’ll have a less consistent experience for clients. They’re probably less likely to ask for [a] referral. They’re probably less confident in articulating the value, therefore articulating the need to raise a fee.” 

HPFs earn profit of $3605 per household against $2756, about 31 per cent more. The study says one reason is that 79 per cent of their clients pay the full fee schedule, against 77.5 per cent at other firms. 

“The high performing firms are thinking about, their people, their structure, their systems, their processes, their CVP, the amount of client-facing people versus otherwise,” Turner says. 

“They think about all of those things, it’s aligned to deliver a really good experience, and they’re… almost building [their process] backwards: what do our ideal clients want and need? What can we deliver for them, and how do we articulate that and set up assistance for us and people do that? 

“But I will just say one thing: [high-performing] firms work on all these things all the time, and it’s iterative.”