Australia’s financial advice sector is undergoing a transformation that will redefine how advice is delivered and consumed. Australians, who deserve better access to affordable personal advice, will be choosing from super funds, advice practices, insurance firms and even banks, who will re-enter the market. These providers will be chasing a 2030 market of $8b market, according to Deloitte’s Advice 2030: The big shift report.

The future chief advice officer (CAO) will be a strategic, purpose-driven leader delivering affordable and accessible advice to millions of unserved Australians. They will harness compliant AI and data-driven tools to personalise advice at scale. Our advice champion will build their customers’ financial confidence while supercharging their business growth. The early adopters will be seen as customer first-leaders – no one left behind.

As a former adviser myself, I’ve long believed our current settings fail to serve everyday Australians. Advice is typically reserved for those who can afford comprehensive, bespoke services, while well-intentioned intra-fund models fail those with even moderate complexity.

This scarcity approach rations advice while our defined contribution system imposes investment and longevity risk onto customers. The result is poorer outcomes for individuals and national savings.

The benefits of advice are clear. Customers report higher financial confidence and wellbeing. Rice Warner estimates that if all Australians could access quality advice that added another 1 per cent a year, then national savings would jump by $2 trillion over 30 years. The key to this is affordable and accessible advice. A better return means nothing to an unadvised customer.

Mastery in five dimensions

Our future CAO will need to master five critical challenges: Complexity, Capability, Connectivity, Capital, and Championing to succeed.

Complexity: Maze, monsters and champions

Australia’s superannuation system is world class while also being labyrinthine. Even the financially savvy need an advice champion to beat the maze monsters and maximise their outcomes. Currently advice arrives just before the maze exit – pre-retirement – yet early advice is the best advice!

Our CAO will simplify this complexity. They will re-design the education, guidance and advice continuum for all life stages /events with flexible delivery systems. Regulatory reform will be needed that allows all advice providers the flexibility to serve customers as they choose to access advice.

Capability: Build it and they will come

If our future CAO’s purpose is accessible and affordable advice, their worst nightmare is a customer stampede tomorrow. The current face-to-face or hybrid model would collapse, waitlists would soar, costs would explode, and customers would walk.

Hence they must lead the scale up in guidance and advice delivery moving on from the bespoke tailor to an ‘off the rack’ approach using hybrid and digital-first delivery to serve the many. They will see these new tools as an amplifier for advisers by capturing data, simplifying compliance. Advisers will be freed up to focus on empathy and judgement turning customers into client advocates. Australians have embraced remote working and robotic surgery, digital advice is next. It’s not brain surgery!

The CAO will build talent programs from graduate to succession planning. While superannuation funds will train the next generation of advisers, practices will still need to invest in talent programs to meet growing demand.

Connectivity: Here, there and everywhere

Our CAO knows advice needs to be not only accessible and affordable but also personal and timely to be meaningful. In super funds, silos across advice, guidance, customer service and product will be dismantled, creating customer centric services that build lifetime financial confidence. Digital advice advances intra-fund advice to include personal needs.

Connectivity goes beyond delivery to inclusion. Customers need to learn how advice can be life changing. Engagement tools like gamification and special offers will be needed grab limited attention. Advice allows super funds to be relevant to early and mid-career customers not just retirees. Relevancy leads to loyalty.

In private practice, our CAO will introduce digital advice tools and scale processes to help advisers build relevancy with younger clients, improving their ‘’baby boomer’’ wealth transfer success rates. Digital tools will allow 24 /7 access so when I wake in a fright I can get answers and rest easy.

Capital: Growing the cake for all

The business case is clear. Deloitte forecasts an “estimated 11.8m Australians with unmet advice needs can be accessed via scaled and digital advice offerings”. As advice moves from boutique to scalable offerings, practices will attract capital to further integrate tech and data. Growth always attracts quality talent fuelling more growth.

The super fund CAO knows the scale war is over and the service war is beginning. They will deliver on the scale promise, investing in integrated guidance/advice that links smoothly with execution. Savers contributions will grow, under insurance improved, and pre-retirees better prepared.

Championing: What took us so long?

After 30 years of compulsory super, too many Australians are still struggling without access to quality advice. The CAO, their advice champion, will embed affordable, early advice that builds financial confidence and long-term wellbeing. They must reset the regulator relationship while driving faster innovation and customer first outcomes.

The future CAO knows advice has the best ROI for improving customer outcomes. Their purpose driven approach will demonstrate the life-changing importance of personal financial advice. After decades of compulsory super, we might wonder what took us so long to make advice essential.

Michael Swinsburg is managing partner at Alexander Hughes Executive Search and Leadership Advisory.