AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL ADVICE PRACTICE STUDY
Australian Financial Advice Practice Study 2026–2027
What’s helping Australian financial advice practices grow?
Heron’s research examines the operating patterns behind growth: capacity, people, process, technology, client continuity and dependence on key people. This study adds current practice-level evidence from owners, managers, advisers and support teams.
8–12 minutes
Anonymous response
Receive the findings
HERON OPERATIONS · REFERENCE PAPER
From Owner-Led to Owner-Independent
What the evidence tells us about growing a financial advice practice without increasing key-person risk.
Anonymous survey
Responses are analysed and reported in aggregate.
Not a sales form
The research response is the purpose of taking part.
No individual answers shared
Participant responses are not provided to employers or practices.
Findings email kept separate
Contact details are stored separately from survey answers.
WHY PARTICIPATE?
Give a little time.
Get insights to grow your practice.
Contribute what you are seeing inside your practice, then get the aggregated picture back.
See the findings
Receive the aggregated research findings and see the patterns emerging across advice practices.
Compare perspectives
See where owners, managers, advisers and support teams agree, and where their experience differs.
Ask better questions
Use the patterns to identify what may be worth examining more closely inside your own practice.
AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Australian Financial Advice Practice Study 2026–2027
Take part now. Get insights to grow your practice.
This study brings together evidence from 47 academic, industry and consumer research sources with current feedback from people working inside Australian financial advice practices.
We want to understand what is helping practices grow, where capacity and complexity are getting in the way, and how owners, managers, advisers and support teams experience those issues differently.
BEGIN THE STUDYThis is research, not a sales pitch. Your survey response is anonymous and results are reported only in aggregate. If you choose to receive the findings, your contact details are stored separately and are not linked to your individual answers. Participating does not add you to a marketing list, and Heron will not contact you about its services simply because you took part.
WHY DIFFERENT ROLES MATTER
Different roles see different opportunities and challenges
That difference is part of what we are studying. The survey adapts to the participant’s role rather than treating one viewpoint as the whole story.
The useful question is not who is right. It is where the perspectives line up, and where they do not.
Owners
Commercial pressure, growth and the decisions that still depend on them.
Managers
Capacity, accountability and whether work can be coordinated clearly.
Advisers
The client relationship, professional judgement and day-to-day service delivery.
Support teams
Where handovers, systems and processes actually help or get in the way.
ONE SIGNAL ALREADY IN THE EVIDENCE
Client referrals were a major contributor to reported revenue growth.
In an Australian study of privately owned financial planning businesses, 25 of the 38 advisers answering the gross-revenue-growth question identified client referrals as a main contributor.
Pawski, Powell & Golab (2022). Response frequency, not an estimate of how much growth referrals caused.
WHEN GROWTH WORKS
More referrals
More enquiries enter the practice
More clients
More onboarding and service work follows
More handovers
More coordination is required across the team
Generating growth is only half the job. The practice also has to absorb it.
of clients reported close contact with their adviser
indicated they would remain with the same firm if that adviser changed
A RELATIONSHIP QUESTION WORTH EXPLORING
Where does client trust actually sit?
This does not mean the other 63% would leave. It raises a more useful continuity question: how much confidence sits with one adviser, and how much has been built in the wider practice?
Business Health CATScan analysis (2026). Client-reported relationship and stated intention measures.
CURRENT REFERENCE PAPER
Get the latest paper now
The reference paper is free to download. No form, no name, no email address and no marketing signup. Open the PDF and take what is useful.
Direct PDF download. The file link will be added here when the final paper is uploaded.
ADD YOUR PERSPECTIVE
What are you seeing inside your practice?
Take 8–12 minutes. The questions adapt to your role, your response is anonymous, and you can choose to receive the aggregated findings afterwards.