The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) levy on financial advisers will come close to $200 million for the 2027 financial year after it issued a revised estimate today showing a jump of over $63 million since its initial release in November last year.
The new figures stated the revised estimate for the personal financial advice sector had been calculated to be $190.3 million, an increase of $63.4 million on the initial levy estimate of $126.9 million.
Total levies across the scheme will be $198.1 million, an increase of $60.7 million from the November estimate of $137.5 million, with the CSLR stating it was likely to process around 1600 claims, compared to the 900 claims first estimated.
Recognising the significant increase in the estimated levy, which now totals $122.4 million from the $75.7 million levied in the 2026 financial year, the scheme stated the rise was the result of an expected 71 per cent lift in compensation claim payments for the 2027 financial year.
Many of these claims would represent the last related to Dixon Advisory & Superannuation Services (DASS), which had been processed by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) faster than expected, and the first tranche of claims tied to the Shield and First Guardian master fund product failures.
The CSLR added the initial levy estimate published in November 2025 excluded the latter due to limited available information, which had since been supplied detailing the potential size and scale of compensation that may be paid by the scheme.
An actuarial report released with the estimate stated the expedited DASS cases and an additional $30.2 million allowance for Shield and First Guardian claims account for $58.9 million of the $63.4 million increase for the personal financial advice sub-sector and claims related to the latter were likely to rise.
The report stated: “11,800 investments are estimated to be affected by the Shield and First Guardian collapses. To date, notwithstanding the highly publicised nature of the failures, AFCA has only received around 3100 complaints that have indicated they involve Shield and/or First Guardian, including complaints against superannuation trustees and the responsible entities for Shield and First Guardian.”
The CSLR will need an additional special levy to address the $170.3 million over the $20 million sector cap, which can only be authorised by Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino.
Jason Spits
SENIOR JOURNALIST
Jason is a senior journalist with Benchmark Media and writes for the selfmanagedsuper website and magazine and smstrusteenews website. He has covered financial services since 1999 and has written about life insurance, superannuation, investment management and financial advice, in both a freelance and in-house capacity, and also did a brief stint as a media manager for an industry association. He has been the editor of trade titles Money Management and Financial Standard, and was most recently senior journalist with life insurance title Riskinfo.
Articles by Jason