What financial adviser fees actually cost in Australia

The median cost of ongoing financial advice in Australia sits at about $3,960 a year, though most retirees pay somewhere between $2,500 and $6,000 depending on how complex their situation is. A comprehensive upfront plan, the kind that covers superannuation, Centrelink and estate matters together, often costs several thousand dollars more before ongoing fees even start.

The exact number depends entirely on the fee model an adviser uses and how much work your situation needs. That’s why the number on a proposal matters less than what sits behind it.

Before you sign anything, do this:

Ask for the fee in dollars, not percentages, at your actual account balance.
Request the Financial Services Guide (FSG) and Statement of Advice (SOA) up front.
Confirm what ongoing fees buy you each year, and how you’d cancel them.

Key Takeaways

Financial adviser fees in Australia depend on the fee model used, and every percentage quote should be converted to a dollar figure before you compare or commit.

Point	Details
Median annual fee	Ongoing advice costs about $3,960 a year on average nationally.
Fee model changes the outcome	AUM, flat, hourly and retainer fees produce very different dollar totals at the same balance.
Consent renews yearly	Ongoing fees deducted from super or investments require fresh written consent every year.
Extra costs sit outside the adviser fee	Platform, admin and investment management fees are billed separately and easy to miss.
Amberwealth quotes fees in dollars	Retirement, super and Age Pension advice is priced against your actual balance, with written consent for anything ongoing.

Amber Wealth Pty Ltd (ABN 16 653 279 013) is a Corporate Authorised Representative (No. 1310815) of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd (ABN 23 065 921 735), holder of Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) No. 229892. Financial advice is provided by Adam Sobczak, ASIC Authorised Representative No. 1234769.

General Advice Warning Disclaimer: The information on this website is general information only and is not intended to be a recommendation. We strongly recommend you seek advice from your financial adviser as to whether this information is appropriate to your needs, financial situation and investment objectives. Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this website, Amber Wealth Pty Ltd, its directors, authors, consultants, editors and any persons involved in the construction of this website, expressly disclaim all and any form of liability to any person in respect of this website and any consequences arising from its use of this information.

This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified financial advisor. Consult a qualified financial professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.

Common financial planner charges and what they mean for retirees
How advisers charge, disclosure rules and tax treatment
What questions should you ask before signing an advice proposal?
Budget examples: turning percentage quotes into dollar figures
How Amber Wealth prices advice for retirees
How fee structures shape your long-term retirement balance
How to negotiate lower financial adviser fees
Fee-only vs commission-based advisers: what’s the real difference?
How performance fees work and when you’ll see them
When are higher financial planner charges actually worth paying?
Get a clear, dollar-based fee quote from Amberwealth
Sources

Common financial planner charges and what they mean for retirees

Financial adviser fees come in five broad shapes, and each one behaves differently as your super balance grows or shrinks in retirement.

Assets under management (AUM) fees charge a percentage of your portfolio, typically 0.75% to 1.5% a year for traditional advice.
Flat or project fees cover a defined piece of work, usually a retirement plan or SOA, often priced between $2,500 and $5,000.
Hourly rates run around $200 to $400, suited to a single question rather than ongoing management.
Retainer or subscription fees charge a fixed regular amount for continuous access to advice.
Robo or hybrid models blend digital tools with limited human contact, charging 0.15% to 0.5%.

Pro Tip: If an adviser only ever quotes you a percentage, ask them to write the dollar figure next to it at your current balance. A 1% fee sounds trivial until you see it as $5,000 on a $500,000 super balance.

AUM fees create an odd dynamic for retirees. As your balance grows through good markets, so does the dollar fee, even though the adviser’s workload hasn’t changed. On a $250,000 balance, a 1% fee is $2,500 a year. On $1 million, the identical percentage becomes $10,000, for largely the same annual review and rebalancing work.

Diagram of AUM fees scaling with portfolio size

That’s one reason flat or retainer pricing appeals to people with SMSFs or Centrelink strategies to manage: the fee reflects the complexity of the advice, not the size of the nest egg. If your main need is designing a retirement income stream, negotiating Age Pension eligibility, and reviewing it yearly, a flat annual retainer tends to be more predictable than a floating AUM percentage.

How advisers charge, disclosure rules and tax treatment

Every licensed adviser in Australia must hand you two documents before you pay anything: a Financial Services Guide (FSG) and a Statement of Advice (SOA). The FSG explains who the adviser works for, how they’re paid, and what conflicts of interest exist. The SOA sets out the specific advice given to you and must break the fees down in dollars, not just percentages.

Ongoing fee arrangements come with a legal safeguard most people don’t know about: advisers must get your written consent every year to keep charging fees, particularly when those fees are deducted directly from your super or investment account. If you don’t renew that consent, the fee has to stop.

Your rights include:

Receiving a clear, itemised breakdown of every fee in the SOA.
Being asked to sign fresh written consent annually for ongoing advice fees.
Being able to cancel an ongoing fee arrangement at any time, without needing a reason.

On tax, some adviser fees are deductible when the advice relates directly to producing assessable income, such as ongoing investment management fees. Fees for drawing up an initial financial plan are generally treated differently to fees for managing an existing income-producing portfolio. Because the line between deductible and non-deductible advice isn’t always obvious, check your specific situation with the ATO or a registered tax agent before you assume a fee is claimable.

What questions should you ask before signing an advice proposal?

A good proposal survives scrutiny. Work through these questions before you commit to any adviser fee structure.

Show me the dollar total. Ask the adviser to convert any percentage-based fee into a dollar figure at your current balance, for both the first year and ongoing years.
What’s included, exactly? Get a list of what’s covered, review meetings, tax help, Centrelink strategy, implementation, and what costs extra.
What am I paying that isn’t the adviser’s fee? Platform, admin and investment management costs sit on top of adviser fees and rarely appear in the headline number.
Is there a commission hiding in this? Ask directly whether any product recommended pays the adviser or their business a commission.
How often do we meet, and how do I stop paying? Confirm review frequency and how you’d exit or renegotiate the ongoing fee arrangement.

Writing the answers down matters as much as asking the questions. If an adviser hesitates to put fee detail in writing beyond the SOA, treat that as a signal, not a formality.

Budget examples: turning percentage quotes into dollar figures

Numbers on a page tell you more than percentages ever will. Here’s what common AUM rates look like once they’re converted to dollars across typical retirement balances.

0.5% AUM: $1,250 a year on $250,000, $2,500 on $500,000, $5,000 on $1 million.
1.0% AUM: $2,500 a year on $250,000, $5,000 on $500,000, $10,000 on $1 million.
1.25% AUM: $3,125 a year on $250,000, $6,250 on $500,000, $12,500 on $1 million.

A first-year bill usually runs higher than every year after, because it includes the SOA preparation and implementation work alongside the ongoing fee. A retiree with $500,000 might pay a $3,000 upfront planning fee plus a $5,000 ongoing AUM fee in year one, then just the $5,000 ongoing fee from year two.

Watch for the costs that sit beside the adviser fee rather than inside it. Platform or administration fees on your super or investment account, and the investment management fees charged by the underlying funds, are billed separately and rarely show up in the adviser’s own fee disclosure. A superannuation calculator is a quick way to see how these layered costs compound against your actual balance over time.

How Amber Wealth prices advice for retirees

Amberwealth quotes every fee in dollars before you commit to anything, whether the advice covers retirement planning, superannuation and SMSF strategy, or Age Pension and Centrelink positioning.

The fee shape follows the work, not the other way around:

A comprehensive upfront plan is typically quoted as a flat fee tied to the complexity of your tax, super and Centrelink position.
Ongoing management fees are disclosed as both a percentage and the equivalent dollar amount at your balance.
Written consent for any ongoing fee is renewed annually, as required, with a clear breakdown of what that fee buys.

If you already have a quote from another adviser, Amberwealth can review it against your balance and goals to check whether the fee structure suits a retirement timeline. That review, or a session using the superannuation calculator, is a practical first step before you sign anything.

Point	Details
Median annual cost	Ongoing advice fees average around $3,960 a year nationally.
Fee shape drives cost	AUM, flat, hourly and retainer fees produce very different dollar outcomes at the same balance.
Consent is annual	Ongoing fees deducted from super or investments require written consent renewed every year.
Amberwealth quotes in dollars	Fees are disclosed as dollar figures alongside percentages, with consent renewed annually.

How fee structures shape your long-term retirement balance

A percentage-based fee compounds against your balance the same way investment growth does, just in reverse. Over 20 years of retirement, the gap between a 0.5% and a 1.5% ongoing fee isn’t a rounding error, it’s a full percentage point of return handed to fees instead of staying invested.

On a $500,000 balance drawing a modest return, that one percentage point difference in fees, compounded annually, can amount to tens of thousands of dollars less in your account over a couple of decades. The effect is strongest for retirees living off their balance, because fees get charged on the whole portfolio each year, not just on the growth.

This isn’t an argument for the cheapest fee on the table. A well-built retirement income strategy, one that sequences withdrawals to protect your balance in down markets and coordinates with Age Pension thresholds, can preserve far more value than it costs in fees. The point is to know which one you’re paying for: a fee that funds genuine planning work, or a fee that simply scales with your balance regardless of the effort behind it.

How to negotiate lower financial adviser fees

Adviser fees are more negotiable than most people assume, particularly for larger balances or straightforward situations.

Hands poised to sign fee consent form

Start by asking whether the fee scales down at higher balances. Many AUM-based fee schedules use tiered percentages, where the rate drops once your balance crosses a threshold, say from 1% down to 0.75% above $750,000. If the adviser hasn’t mentioned tiering, ask directly.

Consider unbundling services you don’t need every year. If your situation is stable, you might only need a full review every two years with a lighter check-in annually, rather than paying for quarterly meetings you don’t use. A flat project fee for a one-off strategy, rather than an ongoing retainer, suits people who don’t need continuous hand-holding.

Get a second opinion before committing to a long-term ongoing arrangement. A competing quote, even an informal one, gives you real leverage to ask your preferred adviser to match or explain the difference. And because consent for ongoing fees renews annually, you have a built-in yearly checkpoint to renegotiate or walk away, no lock-in contract required.

Fee-only vs commission-based advisers: what’s the real difference?

A fee-only adviser charges you directly, through an hourly rate, flat fee, retainer or AUM percentage, and doesn’t receive commissions from the products they recommend. A commission-based adviser, by contrast, may be paid by the insurer or fund manager whose product they place, which creates a built-in incentive to recommend products that pay them rather than the ones that suit you best.

Since the introduction of reforms following the Future of Financial Advice changes, most ongoing investment commissions have been phased out for financial advice in Australia. Insurance commissions on products like life and income protection cover still exist in some cases, so it’s worth asking directly whether any recommended insurance policy pays your adviser a commission.

The practical test is simple: ask whether the adviser’s income changes based on which product they recommend. If the answer is no, you’re dealing with a fee-only structure where the incentive is aligned with giving you the best advice for your situation, not the best-paying product.

How performance fees work and when you’ll see them

Performance fees aren’t common in mainstream financial advice, they show up more often in managed funds and some investment platforms than in the adviser’s own fee. When they exist, they’re calculated as a percentage of returns above a set benchmark, sometimes called a “hurdle rate.”

For example, a fund might charge no performance fee on the first 6% of annual return, then take 15% of everything above that hurdle.

For retirees, performance fees deserve extra scrutiny because they can encourage funds to chase higher-risk returns to clear the hurdle, which isn’t always appropriate for a portfolio that needs to fund regular drawdowns. If a product recommended to you carries a performance fee, ask exactly how the hurdle is set, how often it resets, and whether it applies to the whole fund or just your slice of it.

When are higher financial planner charges actually worth paying?

Higher fees earn their keep when the work behind them is genuinely complex. A retiree with a concentrated share portfolio, an SMSF, and an Age Pension eligibility question to solve needs more modelling, tax coordination and documentation than a simple rebalancing job. Building that kind of plan properly takes real adviser time, and a higher upfront fee often reflects that work rather than padding.

Where I’d push back is on paying premium ongoing fees for something a simpler, lower-cost structure could handle just as well. If your situation is a straightforward passive portfolio with no drawdown sequencing, no Centrelink complexity and no SMSF, a lighter-touch or flat-fee arrangement usually delivers the same outcome for less.

Either way, insist on the same two things: written consent for anything ongoing, and a dollar total you can actually check against your balance before you sign.

Get a clear, dollar-based fee quote from Amberwealth

Amberwealth is the alternative to guessing your way through a percentage-based quote: every fee is shown in dollars against your actual balance, with the deliverables spelled out before you sign anything. Where a generic AUM arrangement charges the same rate regardless of whether your situation is simple or complex, Amberwealth prices retirement planning, superannuation and SMSF advice, and Age Pension strategy around what the work genuinely requires.

Amberwealth

If you’re weighing up a proposal from another adviser, or you simply want to see what a retirement income plan would cost against your own balance, book a conversation with Amberwealth and ask for a dollar-based quote before you commit to anything.