The latest industry research has found the ability of financial advisers to service more clients is being hampered by process inefficiency and capacity constraints.
Financial advisers would like to serve more clients, but are finding it increasingly difficult to do so, according to Colonial First State’s (CFS) “2025 Advice Practice Profitability Report”.
The report, commissioned by CFS and conducted by Empower Business Advisory, found the average adviser now manages 112 ongoing clients, up slightly from 110 in 2024, but would prefer to be servicing 152 clients on average. Further, only 18 per cent of practitioners admitted to either servicing the ideal number of clients or looking to reduce their book of business.
“Advisers want to serve more clients and streamline operations, yet capacity constraints are rising. This highlights a critical dynamic – platform selection is a strategic enabler of growth,” CFS distribution group executive Bryce Quirk noted.
Capacity constraints were identified as one of the biggest barriers to providing services to more clients. To this end, more advisers indicated they are finding themselves, or their client service teams, operating at full capacity, with 42 per cent of respondents reporting this was the case in 2025 compared to 35 per cent in 2024.
“Building more streamlined and profitable practices is a key strategic priority for most advice firms, with the majority focused on simplifying operations and increasing revenue per client over the next three years,” Empower Business Advisory managing director Recep Peker explained.
Increasing revenue per client was named as the highest strategic priority for the majority of firms, with 54 per cent of practitioners surveyed in both 2024 and 2025 nominating this goal. Simplifying operations and streamlining back-office administration was the next biggest focus, with 52 per cent of advisers responding in that manner for the current year compared to 44 per cent in 2024.
More than a quarter of practices are planning technology stack reviews in 2025, with 28 per cent saying they were intending to do this, up from 22 per cent in 2024, and 32 per cent pointing out they were going to work on implementing better integrations between systems in 2025, up from 23 per cent in the previous year.
“Advisers are also looking to reinvest their efficiency gains back into their businesses and clients. Beyond serving more clients, they say greater capacity would allow them to refine their business models and strengthen their value proposition to clients while also achieving better work-life balance for themselves and their teams,” Peker explained.
Data for the report was gleaned from a survey of over 500 advisers and their support staff.
