The latest Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) statistics have revealed issues involving SMSF-related advice were the second most common actions raised for the quarter ended 30 September 2025.
To this end, the government body received 394 complaints during this period, which was second to issues brought forward against public offer superannuation funds at 562.
AFCA lead ombudsman Shail Singh noted SMSFs dominated the product category of complaints, while concerns over financial advice dominated the issues category.
Authority head of service delivery Tim Goss indicated this is a continuing trend when analysing the relevant data collected across the most recent financial years.
With regard to other specified investment areas, complaints relating to shares numbered 304, those involving mixed asset funds totalled 177 and there were 78 actions raised against cash management accounts.
All up, AFCA received 1852 complaints during the September quarter, which has been described as a high number, particularly when compared to the total number of complaints received for the entire 2025 financial year. To this end, 4193 actions were raised with AFCA over the 12-month period.
According to Goss, the types of complaints have been consistent year on year.
“Failing to act in the client’s best interest is overwhelmingly our most common issue and it’s very closely related to and sometimes overlaps other issues [listed in our top five grievances],” he told attendees of a members’ forum held today.
“[These include] issues of failure to prioritise clients’ interests and issues surrounding inappropriate advice.
“So advice-related issues are continuing to dominate in terms of investments and advice complaints received at AFCA.
“This is also followed by concerns involving service quality and failing to follow instructions as well.”
The statistics show 26 per cent of complaints were received at the registration stage and from referrals and that AFCA closed 998 matters during the September quarter.
