‘Get some financial advice’ - why getting advice is just not that simple anymore

Feature: ‘Get some financial advice’ - why getting advice is just not that simple anymore From Bec’s Desk: Heading home The Age and Sydney Morning Herald: The social media trap that could cost you your retirement savings Prime Time: Before you switch your super, listen to this Ad - Before we start — a big thanks to our newsletter sponsor this week, Viking Don’t miss out on incredible value with Viking’s Explorer Sale. Ending on 31 March, this is your chance to discover Europe’s most enchanting rivers from just $5,495pp, including return airfares, all onboard meals, Wi‑Fi, tours and port fees*. From the windmill‑studded banks of The Netherlands through to the historic castles and cathedrals of Germany, France, Switzerland and beyond, there’s a voyage for all interests. Sail Europe’s great rivers in comfort with immersive itineraries and enriching experiences on Australia’s most trusted river cruise line. Use the code FFE25 to fly free up to $5,000 per couple on 2026-2028 river voyages.* “Get some financial advice.” It is probably the most common line in Australian retirement commentary. Whenever markets move, super rules change, pension thresholds shift, or someone asks how they are meant to navigate the path from full-time work into retirement, the default response is to tell people in their 40s, 50s and 60s to go and get personal financial advice. I have said it myself repeatedly over the past few years. It is not wrong. But I am beginning to think it is incomplete. A better version might be this: “learn how the system works first, and then look for the type of advice that suits your situation and goals”. That distinction matters because advice is no longer a simple, uniform service. When people walk into an advice firm seeking help to build or cross the bridge into retirement, they are often offered an ongoing arrangement where their super is moved onto a platform, invested in a model portfolio selected by the adviser or their firm, and reviewed each year for a percentage-based fee. That structure now sits at the centre of much of the professions ongoing service model. It provides continuity for clients and stable revenue for practices. For some households, that is entirely appropriate. But many Australians approaching retirement are not looking for someone to manage their money indefinitely. They are trying to answer very specific questions: Can I afford to retire? How much can I draw each year? How does the Age Pension fit in? What mistakes should I avoid in the early years? Those are retirement design questions. They are not automatically investment management questions. And a lot of advisers don’t want to provide strategy without the ongoing relationship if they have such limited capacity to serve as they do today. A significant number of ordinary superannuation holders are already in diversified, low-cost funds doing exactly what they were built to do. What they lack is clarity about the rules and confidence about the transition. In that context, handing over their super to a long-term investment management arrangement may not always be the most proportionate response. The phrase “go and get advice” assumes that advice suited to these non investment centric questions is easy to access, simple to understand and consistent in what it delivers. It is none of those things. It is often expensive, shaped by regulation and influenced by how each firm earns its income. Yet we speak about it as though it were a single product sitting on a shelf, easy to find, navigate and buy. When we tell people to just get advice, we skip an important step. Many approaching retirement do not yet know which problem they are trying to solve. Education gives them the ability to ask better questions and recognise whether what is being offered actually fits them and avoids them falling into the hands of unscrupulous operators (like we saw with Shield and First Guardian and with the lead generation issues flagged this week by the regulator). Advice is important. What’s unhelpful is treating it as a one-size-fits-all solution every time something changes. Think of advice as a choose-your-own-adventure exercise. The problem is that most Australians are handed the book without a guide to the chapters. There are several very different types of advice, and they are rarely explained clearly. So let me give you the short-overview (there’s more in the new edition of epic). There is general advice – information and education that helps you understand how super, tax and the Age Pension work, but does not take your personal circumstances into account. There is intrafund or super fund advice – the limited advice many super funds provide to help members with contributions, investment options, insurance and basic retirement questions within that fund. And then there is personal advice, which is where things become more complex. Personal advice is often treated as a single category, but it isn’t. It can mean very different things. Some super funds now hold their own licences and provide personal advice directly to members. Others refer members to trusted external advice businesses that know their fund well. Then there are other advice firms that don’t call themselves independent as much anymore, many of these are closely connected to investment management or do it inhouse. Their core service involves strategy first then setting up and managing portfolios for an ongoing percentage fee, so the advice process often results in assets being placed into that structure. What is harder to find is advice that is purely strategic. The kind where an adviser reviews your whole household position, works through your retirement structure, and is entirely comfortable recommending that you stay in your existing super fund if that is the right outcome. That can be more difficult to deliver when most of a firm’s ongoing income comes from managing assets. Not because advisers are acting improperly, but because businesses tend to organise themselves around how they are paid. (All businesses not just advisers). There is also retirement strategy work — focused on timing, income planning, pension interaction and risk management — which does not automatically require your investments to be rebuilt. In fact, it might involve something far more practical: stepping back and asking whether you are in the right super fund for you, and if not, helping you navigate the superannuation market with clarity. That means comparing funds properly. Understanding fee structures. Looking at long-term performance, insurance definitions, service models, product features, annuities and retirement functionality. It means evaluating whether a switch is justified and being equally comfortable concluding that it is not. Strangely, that kind of fund-to-fund navigation – independent of moving assets into a proprietary investment structure and platform – is rare. I have yet to meet many advisers whose primary role is helping Australians assess and, where appropriate, switch within the superannuation system without simultaneously placing those assets into their own managed framework and chosen investments. Yet for many people, that is exactly the help that might be required. And then there are advisers whose core service is investment management. Even here, there are differences. Some build portfolios using direct shares, ETFs and bonds. Some implement pre-mapped model portfolios through managed accounts. Others design more customised portfolios. At the top end, some manage broader family wealth structures. These are not interchangeable services. Yet we use one phrase – “go and get advice” – as though they are. If Australians are going to be encouraged to seek advice, they deserve a clearer map of what is actually on offer and how each type is paid for, so they can assess whether it is in fact what they need when they walk through the door. Firms, and advisers in turn, need a consistent and transparent language for explaining what they…