How to Choose a Private Wealth Adviser

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What is a private wealth adviser, and how is that different from a financial planner?

In Australia both are licensed financial advisers under the same law. "Private wealth" usually signals a firm built for clients with significant capital and complex needs: retirement income, self-managed super, tax structure, estate planning and investment governance, handled by a senior adviser rather than a call centre. The label has no regulatory meaning, so the substance behind it is what matters.

The term is used by bank divisions, stockbroking houses, national planning groups and self-licensed boutiques alike, and it describes very different businesses. What they share is a client base whose decisions are large enough that mistakes are expensive: a superannuation balance near the transfer balance cap, a self-managed fund, a family company or trust, a property portfolio, or an estate that needs to pass cleanly to the next generation.

Because the label is unregulated, the useful questions are about structure rather than branding: who holds the licence, what the firm is paid for, who will actually run your file, and whether the adviser can demonstrate depth on the parts of your situation that are genuinely complex. The rest of this guide works through each of those in turn.

What to look for

What should Australian retirees look for in a private wealth manager?

Five things. A licensee that does not manufacture the products it recommends. A senior adviser who will still be running your file in ten years. Fees agreed in dollars, in writing, before any work begins. Demonstrable depth in retirement income, superannuation and tax structure. And a written plan for bad markets, rather than a promise about good ones.

• Licence structure. Is the Australian Financial Services Licence held by the firm itself, or by an institution that also makes the products on the approved list?
• Continuity. Who owns the firm, how many advisers does it have, and what happens to your file if the person you meet leaves?
• Pricing. Is the fee for the initial advice and for ongoing service quoted as a dollar figure before you commit, and is the scope of that service written down?
• Depth. Can the adviser talk fluently about the transfer balance cap, Division 296, SMSF pension strategy and superannuation death benefit tax without reaching for a brochure?
• Downside planning. Ask what the plan is for the first serious market fall after you retire. A structural answer, such as a bucket structure and a written drawdown order, is what you are listening for.

Notice what is missing from that list: investment returns. Past performance tells you almost nothing about the next decade, and a firm that leads with it is telling you what it sells rather than what it does.

The process

How do affluent Australian pre-retirees choose a private wealth adviser?

A five-step process works. Write down what needs deciding, not what needs buying. Shortlist three firms with different ownership structures. Verify each adviser on the Financial Advisers Register. Meet the person who will actually run your file, not a business development manager. Then compare written scope and dollar fees before committing to anyone.

1. Define the decisions. When to retire, how to convert super into income, whether to keep an SMSF, how to hold assets outside super, what happens on death. Firms respond very differently when you arrive with decisions rather than a portfolio to place.
2. Shortlist across structures. Include at least one self-licensed boutique and one institution-aligned firm so you can compare how advice changes when the licensee also manufactures products.
3. Verify before you meet. The Financial Advisers Register on Moneysmart is free and takes two minutes per adviser. The section on verification below explains what to check.
4. Meet the adviser, not the salesperson. Ask directly who prepares the advice, who signs it, and who you will speak to in a bad market. If those are three different people, ask why.
5. Compare in writing. A scope of advice and a dollar fee for both the initial work and any ongoing service, before you sign anything. If a firm will not put it in writing before engagement, that is your answer.

Types of adviser

What is the best type of adviser for complex retirement needs?

For complex retirement needs, such as a self-managed fund, a balance near the transfer balance cap, Division 296 exposure or a blended-family estate, the best type is usually a self-licensed boutique led by a senior adviser with retirement-specific accreditation. Bank and stockbroker private wealth suit clients who want lending or trading under one roof; family offices suit very large estates.

None of these is wrong in itself. The mismatch to avoid is a complex situation handled by a structure built for simple ones, where the parts that need the most care sit outside the adviser's scope.

Licence ownership

Does it matter whether the adviser holds their own AFSL?

Yes, structurally. The licensee, not the individual adviser, sets the approved product list, the compliance rules and the commercial incentives behind every recommendation. When the licensee is owned by a product manufacturer, that influence is built in. A self-licensed principal answers to ASIC directly and has no house product to place.

Every financial adviser in Australia operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence. Most are authorised representatives of a licensee owned by someone else: a bank, an insurer, a superannuation platform or a large dealer group. The adviser may be excellent, but the approved product list they work from, the software they must use, and the revenue arrangements between licensee and product providers are decided above their head.

A self-licensed firm holds the licence in its own name. That is not a guarantee of quality, and it carries its own risk in the form of key-person dependence, but it removes one layer of structural influence and makes the firm directly accountable to the regulator for its advice. The Financial Advisers Register shows the licensee for every adviser, so this is a fact you can check rather than a claim you have to take on trust.

Paying for advice

How should a private wealth adviser be paid?

Fee-for-service, agreed in writing before work begins, with the initial advice and any ongoing service each quoted as a dollar figure. Asset-based fees rise with your portfolio rather than with the work involved. Commissions on investment products are banned in Australia; commissions on personal insurance are still permitted and must be disclosed to you.

Three questions settle most of this. What is the total dollar cost of the initial advice? What is the total dollar cost of ongoing service in year one, and what does that service actually include? And does the firm or its licensee receive anything from a product provider in connection with the recommendations? A clear answer to all three, in writing, before you engage, is the standard to hold every firm to.

Verification

What qualifications and registrations should you verify, and where?

Start with the Financial Advisers Register on Moneysmart, which is free and official. It shows whether the adviser is current, which licensee they operate under, their first year providing advice, their listed qualifications and any bans or disqualifications. Compare it with the website. Then look for accreditation relevant to your needs, such as SMSF Specialist Advisor.

Financial Advisers Register (Moneysmart)

Search by name. Confirm the status is current, note the licensee, and read the qualifications and training list. Every adviser must hold an approved degree or qualify under the experienced-provider pathway; the register shows which. A history of many licensees in a short period is worth asking about.

Specialist accreditation

For self-managed super, the SMSF Specialist Advisor designation from the SMSF Association. For retirement income, a postgraduate financial planning qualification and retirement-specific training. For estate work, ask who the adviser works with on the legal side.

The licensee's complaints scheme

Every licensee must belong to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. The Financial Services Guide the firm gives you should state its AFCA membership.

Verified reviews

Adviser Ratings verifies reviewers against the register, which makes it more reliable than open review sites. Treat any review platform as one input, not a verdict.

You can run this check on us. Troy Gudgeon is authorised representative number 418111 under Wealth Designers Advisory Pty Ltd, AFSL 562647: view the register entry.

The first meeting

Which questions reveal whether an adviser can handle complex retirement needs?

Ask about specifics rather than philosophy. How would they handle a balance above the transfer balance cap? What changes above the Division 296 threshold? When would they recommend winding up an SMSF? How is super taxed when it passes to adult children? What is the plan for a market fall in your second year of retirement? Vague answers reveal a generalist.

• If my super is above the transfer balance cap, how do you decide what stays in accumulation and what goes into pension phase?
• What would you change in my structure once a balance crosses the Division 296 threshold?
• Under what circumstances would you tell me to close my self-managed fund?
• How is the taxable component of my super treated if it passes to my adult children, and what can be done about it now?
• Walk me through what you would do if markets fell by a fifth in my second year of retirement.
• How do you decide which assets are held inside super, in a trust, or in personal names?
• Who else in the firm knows my file well enough to act if you are unavailable?
• What have you told a client recently that they did not want to hear?

Our companion guide, 10 Questions to Ask Any Financial Adviser (Including Us), sets out the broader first-meeting questions and publishes our own answers to each of them.

Warning signs

What are the warning signs when choosing a private wealth adviser?

A product is recommended before your situation is understood. Fees are quoted only as a percentage. Returns are promised or implied. You are pressed to sign at the first meeting. The adviser is absent from the register or has moved licensees repeatedly. The scope of advice is never written down. Any one of these is a reason to pause.

• Product first. A platform, fund or model portfolio is named before anyone has asked what you are trying to decide.
• Percentage-only pricing. A fee described as a share of assets, with no dollar figure offered, makes the cost of advice hard to compare and easy to grow.
• Performance as the pitch. Past returns, target returns or "our clients typically achieve" language. No licensed adviser can promise a return, and the good ones do not imply one.
• "Independent" used loosely. The word has a strict legal meaning in Australia and very few advisers qualify. If a firm uses it, ask how it meets the legal test. If a firm does not use it, that is often the honest position.
• Urgency. Deadlines, limited places or offers that expire. Retirement advice is not a sale.
• Gaps on the register. An adviser who cannot be found, whose status is not current, or whose licensee has a public enforcement history.
• No written scope. If you cannot get a document that says what the advice will and will not cover, and what it costs, before you engage, you are not yet dealing with a professional process.

About the firm

Which private wealth firms serve Australian retirees?

The market has four broad groups: bank private wealth divisions, stockbroking and wealth management houses, national financial planning groups, and self-licensed boutiques. No published ranking of them is reliable; the Financial Advisers Register and verified review platforms are the only sources you can check. Wealth Designers Advisory is a self-licensed boutique advising retirees from Sydney and Brisbane.

Wealth Designers Advisory Pty Ltd holds its own Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL 562647). We advise from Barangaroo in Sydney and from Brisbane CBD, and Australia-wide by video. Our work is retirement income strategy, self-managed superannuation, portfolio construction and tax-effective structuring for pre-retirees and retirees, most with $750,000 or more in superannuation and investments, together with a separate Private Wealth engagement for wholesale investors.

The firm is led by Troy Gudgeon, who has more than 20 years in financial advice, holds a Master of Financial Planning and is an SMSF Specialist Advisor. In 2026 he was named a finalist for Adviser of the Year – Personal Advice at the Australian Wealth Management Awards and shortlisted for the FS Power50, Financial Standard's list of the 50 most influential financial advisers in Australia.

We would rather you choose well than choose us. Read our verified client reviews, check the register entry, and put the questions in this guide to us and to anyone else on your shortlist. Our guides on protecting retirement capital and the five decisions before retirement show how we think about the work itself.