Question: My wife and I are retiring to Brisbane next year to be near our son and his kids. Back home, I know the drill for picking a planner: find a fiduciary with the CFP mark, then look them up on FINRA BrokerCheck. None of that seems to apply in Australia. We’ll have Social Security, two IRAs, a small pension and the money from selling our house, and we’ll want someone local for Australian investments and, eventually, aged care. How do I vet an adviser over there?
Answer: Australia has its own version of that checklist, and some of it is easier to use than the American one. Most of it comes down to whose licence the adviser works under and what you get in writing before you pay.
Start by dropping the word “fiduciary.” You won’t need anyone to promise it. Since 2013, Australia’s Corporations Act has required every financial adviser who gives personal advice to a retail client to act in that client’s best interests and put the client’s interests ahead of their own. That applies whether or not the adviser mentions it on their website.
The same reforms banned most commissions on investment and superannuation products, and the last grandfathered commissions were switched off in 2021. So the fee-only versus commission debate that shapes so much U.S. advice is largely settled by law there. Life insurance is the main exception. Financial advisers can still take a capped commission on it, so ask how they’re paid if you’re buying cover.
The CFP mark does exist in Australia. The Financial Advice Association Australia issues it, not the CFP Board, and it isn’t the baseline. Every adviser now has to meet a legislated education standard and pass a national exam before giving advice at all.
Ask Whose License the Financial Adviser Works Under
Nothing in the U.S. system quite matches this check, and I’d put it first. Every Australian adviser has to work under an Australian Financial Services Licence. Some firms hold their own. Others operate as authorised representatives of a larger licensee, often a big advice group or a fund manager. To take a local example, Solace Financial, a Brisbane planning firm, is owned by its advisers and holds its own licence. The people advising you there are the same people who answer for the advice.
Plenty of good advisers work under a big licensee. If yours does, ask who owns it and whether its approved product list includes products from unrelated companies. Some lists lean toward the licensee’s own funds. An adviser who can’t answer that second question directly is a warning sign.
You can check the license yourself. ASIC runs the Financial Advisers Register, which you can access through the Moneysmart website, and a search is free with no account needed. An entry should name the adviser’s licensee. It may also show what they’re authorised to advise on and any bans or conditions ASIC has recorded.
Every licensee also has to belong to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, a free ombudsman service. If something goes wrong, your complaint goes there, and you won’t need a lawyer to file it.
Get the Statement of Advice Before You Commit
Personal advice has to come in writing. Australian law calls the document a Statement of Advice, usually shortened to SOA. It sets out what the adviser recommends and why, and it has to disclose fees and conflicts of interest. Later, smaller pieces of advice can go in a shorter Record of Advice.
Switching advice is the part to read slowly. If the SOA tells you to move everything onto a new investment platform, it should compare that cost with what you hold now. If it doesn’t, push back before you sign.
Many Australian firms charge a flat dollar fee to build the strategy and write the SOA, then a separate fee for ongoing reviews. Percentage-of-assets fees are still legal, so you’ll see both. Get the SOA fee quoted in dollars up front. That way you know the cost before you see the advice, and it stays the same if your balance grows.
Sign up for ongoing advice, and the adviser needs your written consent every year to keep charging you. They also have to send an annual statement of what you paid and what you got for it.
Many firms don’t charge for the first conversation. Use it to ask for a sample SOA with the client’s details removed, so you can see how clearly they write before you pay for one. Since you mentioned aged care, ask whether they advise on it in-house. Aged care fees and means testing are specialist work, and plenty of planners refer it out.
Ask How They Handle American Clients
You’ll keep filing U.S. returns wherever you live, and that changes what a good Australian portfolio looks like for you. The IRS treats many Australian managed funds as passive foreign investment companies (PFICs), which come with heavy reporting and punitive tax. Portfolios built from direct shares, such as separately managed accounts, generally avoid that problem.
Super is murkier. The IRS has never issued clear guidance on Australian super, and U.S. preparers don’t all treat it the same way. If an adviser suggests putting your house proceeds into super, ask them to explain the U.S. side, or to say plainly that they can’t.
Your IRAs will most likely stay with a U.S. custodian. Some brokerages restrict or close accounts once you list a foreign address, so check your custodian’s rules before you move.
Keep a U.S. CPA or enrolled agent who does expat returns, and get them talking to your Australian financial adviser before any money moves. If you need to find one, the IRS keeps a searchable directory of credentialed preparers.
An adviser who can’t answer the U.S. questions can still be worth hiring. Your U.S. preparer then has to be in on every major decision, which in practice means three-way video calls. Queensland doesn’t use daylight saving, so the gap to the U.S. shifts by an hour twice a year. Someone usually ends up on a 7 a.m. call.