Around 15 per cent of financial advisers registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have yet to inform the regulator of whether they will still be eligible to provide financial advice from 1 January 2026.
In its latest analysis of practitioners on its Financial Advisers Register (FAR), ASIC found that as of 20 November 2025, there were 15,469 relevant providers on the FAR and their Australian financial services (AFS) licensees have indicated 13,143 would be able to provide advice into the new year.
Of this number, 7959 hold an approved degree or qualification, 4212 will rely on the experienced provider pathway and 972 hold both an approved degree or qualification and will rely on the experienced provider pathway.
“The remaining 2326 relevant providers have yet to meet the qualifications standard according to the information currently recorded on the Financial Advisers Register,” ASIC stated.
“Of this cohort, 836 may be eligible for the experienced provider pathway, but their AFS licensees are yet to notify ASIC of this.
“[A further] 827 relevant providers who are also existing providers, unless exempt, will need to complete the specified courses in commercial law and taxation law to continue to provide tax (financial) advice services from 1 January 2026.”
These figures show a decrease of around 1100 from the last reminder ASIC gave when it found that as of 16 September, 3459 relevant providers had yet to disclose their status.
Additional analysis of the FAR by Padua Wealth Data estimated around 900 advisers will fail the 31 December deadline to meet the qualifications standard under section 921B(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 to continue providing personal advice to retail clients on relevant financial products from 1 January.
Wealth data manager with the firm Colin Williams said based on its examination of advisers with degree qualifications, those relying on the experienced pathway and those yet to provide details, the best case for the adviser population at the start of next year was 14,567, down by 892 on ASIC’s current total of 15,459.
“When a series of what-if scenarios are performed, the net loss can easily jump in excess of 1600. Adding together the most realistic outcomes across all categories, the net loss range will be between 1100 and 1500,” Williams said, noting there were factors that may distort these figures.
“[These include] the traditional December resignation spike, advisers gaining qualifications only to exit shortly after – this occurred when the first financial adviser exams commenced – experienced pathway declarations failing due to service periods being checked, the November adviser exam resulting in a surge of new entrants and last-minute December FAR updates distorting the current view of the data.”
