{"id":80332,"date":"2025-11-21T14:19:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=80332"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:25:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:25:27","slug":"advice-firms-enter-new-era-of-talent-scarcity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2025\/11\/21\/advice-firms-enter-new-era-of-talent-scarcity\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice Firms Enter New Era of Talent Scarcity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s financial advice practices are facing the most competitive talent market in a decade, with new research revealing sharp increases in remuneration, surging bonus payments, and a structural shift in how firms attract and retain staff.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesshealth.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Health<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advisely.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advisely<\/a> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Business-Health-Advisely-Staff-Compensation-Benefits-Research-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">For What It&#8217;s Worth report <\/a><\/em>shows an industry under pressure from adviser shortages, rising client demand, and changing workplace expectations. With 68% of firms planning to hire in the next 12 months, staffing has emerged as the advice profession\u2019s new strategic battleground.<\/p>\n<p>The report also states that salaries for almost every key role have jumped sharply since 2023.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Experienced advisers now command an average package of $198,157 (up 23%)\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_80335\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-80335\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Business-Health-Advisely-Staff-Compensation-Benefits-Research-Report-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-80335 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-21-at-1.37.31-pm-e1763692830814.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"352\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-80335\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click the image to download the full report.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>Client service managers are up 20% to $91,878<\/li>\n<li>Admin\/support staff have climbed 17% to $69,604<\/li>\n<li>Only senior paraplanner pay has softened, falling 2% as firms reassess paraplanning models amid advancing AI tools<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The report\u2019s authors also conclude that bonus payments have risen by up to 98% on average across all roles, yet nearly one-third of firms admit their incentive plans are ineffective or poorly structured.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Outsourcing pressures<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The report also states that contrary to industry predictions, outsourcing is not absorbing capacity gaps, and that just:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>13% of firms use offshore paraplanning<\/li>\n<li>12% outsource paraplanning onshore<\/li>\n<li>Almost none outsource advisers, GMs, or professional support roles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, administration outsourcing is widespread (40%), but firms overwhelmingly prefer to keep higher-value roles in-house.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hybrid work<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite earlier enthusiasm for remote work, the share of firms offering work-from-home options has slipped from 92% to 88%, with the steepest decline in regional practices.<\/p>\n<p>Many firms still lack basic remote-work infrastructure:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>32% do not provide dedicated IT hardware<\/li>\n<li>Only 13% offer ergonomic equipment<\/li>\n<li>Just 4% pay for home internet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The report states that with adviser numbers still historically low (15,458 at the last count) \u00a0and demand for retirement advice rising, the competition for quality staff is intensifying, noting:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rising labour costs<\/li>\n<li>Ineffective bonus frameworks, and<\/li>\n<li>Stagnating outsourcing mean practice profitability will come under further pressure<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For firms seeking growth, the report\u2019s key message is that people strategy is now core business strategy.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_80338\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-80338\" style=\"width: 682px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-80338\" src=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-21-at-1.43.18-pm.png\" alt=\"Salary packages for in-house and direct employees. Data and graphic \/ Business health &amp; Advisely.\" width=\"682\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-21-at-1.43.18-pm.png 682w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-21-at-1.43.18-pm-300x231.png 300w, https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/files\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-21-at-1.43.18-pm-546x420.png 546w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 682px) 100vw, 682px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-80338\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Salary packages for in-house and direct employees. Data and graphic \/ Business Health &amp; Advisely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s financial advice practices are facing the most competitive talent market in a decade, with new research revealing sharp increases in remuneration, surging bonus payments, and a structural shift in how firms attract and retain staff. The Business Health &amp; Advisely For What It&#8217;s Worth report shows an industry under pressure from adviser shortages, rising [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":80340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,4474],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-company-news","category-practice-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}