What we do
Adviser Ratings puts the entire world of financial advisers and online advice tools at your fingertips making it easy to find the right kind of advice to suit you and your circumstances. It is an easy to use and transparent online platform which empowers customers and provides a valuable independent mechanism of consumer feedback for the industry.
Our aim
Despite years of experience in the financial services sector and numerous scandals engulfing the finance industry, we didn’t know where to send our family and friends who were seeking financial advice. Through this clear need to bring a trustworthy and transparent service to help consumers find qualified financial services we created Adviser Ratings. Our aim is to make financial advice more accountable, accessible and affordable for customers by fostering transparency, integrity and trust.
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Find an adviser
Use powerful search and selection criteria to find the right financial adviser for you from all currently registered financial advisers across Australia
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Rate your adviser
Share your personal experience of advice by rating your financial adviser or smart tool
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Ask an adviser
Ask advice from a financial planner. Get your questions answered by experts for free
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Get the latest
Learn finance and industry insights through our curated articles, videos and adviser Q&A's
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Be in the know
Browse our rich library of articles and videos created by some of the industry's top writers and wealth experts
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Our Rating System
Our rating system is divided into two key areas. The first is the 5 star Customer Rating - this is calculated as an average of all customer reviews given to an adviser. The second is the Adviser Ratings Status and is displayed as one of 4 badges. The Adviser Ratings Status is calculated using a combination of factors including information gathered from licensees, ASIC, key industry bodies and the overall customer rating score.
Customer Ratings
Whenever a customer rates their adviser they are given the opportunity to give feedback on both the quality and satisfaction with the advice they receive through a series of specially devised questions. These questions involve 4 key areas including: Communication, Knowledge & Expertise, Customer Care and Recommendation. Each of these areas is then combined to give a total percentage which is then divided by 20 to give a final rating out of 5 stars.
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Communication
This means how often the customer could clearly understand the adviser's advice and their explanation of how it fitted the customers needs
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Knowledge & Expertise
How confident the customer is that their adviser's knowledge and experience was broad enough to allow the adviser to despense the best advise for them
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Customer Care
This means how often the adviser was able to give the customer full care and attention when they’ve needed help or advice
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Recommendation
This means how likely the customer would be to reccomend their adviser to other customers, family and friends
Adviser Ratings Status
The rating system incorporates information on individual planners from Consumers, Industry Bodies, Licensees & ASIC. We apply percentages to each component to come up with an overall adviser rating percentage.
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Consumers
We ask feedback from customers on both the quality and satisfaction with the advice they receive through a series of specially devised questions. These questions involve 4 key areas including:
- Communication
- Knowledge & Expertise
- Customer Care
- Recommendation
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Industry Bodies
Consumers can rely on certain industry or professional bodies that its member advisers have appropriate professional qualifications, development & compliance in place. If your adviser is not a member of an industry body, Adviser Ratings requires them to go through a more thorough questionnaire to come up with their rating. We recommend all advisers be a member of an industry or professional body.
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ASIC & Licensees
Each financial adviser is required to hold an Australian Financial Services License or be an Authorised Representative of one. The regulator, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, has the power to enforce certain undertakings on these licensees as well as the power to ban and disqualify financial planners. We take this into consideration in our rating system.
We then award the advisers the following status:
- Platinum
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85 rating or higher
- Gold
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70 - 84 rating
- Silver
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55 - 69 rating
- Bronze
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54 rating or lower
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Paul Hunyor
Board Director
Read morePaul Hunyor
Board Director
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterExperienced venture capital investor, a successful entrepreneur and the current regional head of BCG Digital Ventures Asia.
Strong investment background spanning late stage private equity, as an investment manager for a $5B fund at Archer Capital, through to early stage venture capital as founder of Breakthrough Lab a VC fund specialising in seed stage technology investment. Investor and adviser to a portfolio of start-ups with a current combined enterprise value of over $150M.
Over 8 years in early stage entrepreneurship. Co-founded One Big Switch, an Australian switching platform for household bills. As CEO helped grow the startup in less than 2 years to over 400,000 members, greater than $10m in revenue, and an early exit to News Corporation.
Significant private company board experience for both large private equity backed businesses and several technology start-ups, including: Rebel Sport, Coco Republic, Adviser Ratings and Expense Check.
Currently, as Partner and regional head of BCGDV Asia, leading teams of digital business builders across Sydney, Tokyo and Shanghai to incubate game-changing businesses with the world’s most important corporates.
Graduated from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. -
Angus Woods
Founder & Managing Director
Read moreAngus Woods
Founder & Managing Director
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterMy 20 year working career has been in financial services and consumer businesses. I was previously an executive of Macquarie Bank and CFO of Virgin Money. I’m passionate about helping consumers in spaces they find difficult to navigate. I initially turned my attention to the financial planning industry on the back of the GFC, which brought to light the bad financial advice that had been given in previous years. We hope this long awaited ratings and review service will not only help consumers find a qualified financial planner, but recognise and reward those in the industry that have been unfairly tarnished by a few rogue, poorly qualified planners.
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James Panaretos
Director of Sales
Read moreJames Panaretos
Director of Sales
Connect on LinkedInJames has worked in the Wealth industry since 1991. A qualified Chartered Accountant, James specialised in tax consulting early in his career before he moved into relationship management and sales related roles. James has worked for multi-national and locally domiciled organisations including BT Financial Group, Russell Investment Group, Mercer and StatePlus and has been part of executive teams for the past 15 years. More recently, James has been consulting to a range of organisations across several industries, providing his clients with strategic support in developing and executing their growth plans. Having worked across the financial services value chain, James has a deep understanding and appreciate for the value of good data as part of any organisation’s growth strategy and is ideally positioned to discuss data needs with our clients. -
Katie Dukes
Service Delivery Director
Read moreKatie Dukes
Service Delivery Director
Connect on LinkedInJoining Adviser Ratings in 2018, Katie worked with the data, development and product teams as a Business Analyst and has an extensive understanding of the business and our product portfolio. Prior to Adviser Ratings, Katie worked in the information, knowledge, and data management disciplines across an array of industries including health, mining, construction and engineering. Katie worked for several years at Rio Tinto in the project management office helping global project teams streamline the way information, knowledge and data was managed throughout the project lifecycle. Katie holds a Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Leisure Management from Griffith University, Brisbane and manages our Nightingale, Fund Flow Management and CRM support services. -
Nicolas Pena McGough
Econometrician
Read moreNicolas Pena McGough
Econometrician
Connect on LinkedInNicolas has 5 years experience as an Econometrician in Australian financial services and in working for consumer focused start-ups in his native Argentina. Nic joined the Adviser Ratings team in October 2019. He produces much of our data and statistical analysis on the industry and contributes regularly to the production of our research papers.
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Michelle Freund
Data Integrity Team Coordinator
Read moreMichelle Freund
Data Integrity Team Coordinator
Connect on LinkedInMichelle joined the team at Adviser Ratings in 2018 as a Data Integrity Team member. Since then, she has worked across multiple areas of the business including client services, remediation, and development testing. Michelle is responsible for evaluating segments of the data that require quality assurance, coordinating the team workload and delivering the highest quality data back to the Adviser Ratings database. Prior to Adviser Ratings, Michelle worked in executive roles within the Hotel industry. -
Stacey Golley
Community and Marketing Operations Co-ordinator
Read moreStacey Golley
Community and Marketing Operations Co-ordinator
Connect on LinkedInStacey joined the Adviser Ratings team in 2018. Providing technical and service support, Stacey is the first point of contact for our adviser and consumer community. Stacey also communicates Adviser Ratings research and data publications to wealth management audiences and facilitates sponsored Vendor campaigns. Stacey brings to the team varied experience across Information Services, Local Government and Sustainability. Stacey is a passionate advocate of making financial advice more accessible for consumers by building integrity and trust through our transparent and independent online platform while helping advisers boost their online presence and reputation.