What we do
Adviser Ratings puts the entire world of financial advisers and online advice tools at your finger tips 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 24,000 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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Find smart tools
Access the latest online budgeting, investing and advice tools designed for the DIY consumer
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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 industrie'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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100% - 90%
- Gold
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80% - 89%
- Silver
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70% - 79%
- Bronze
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60% - 69%
- Minimum
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0% - 59%
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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. -
Selina Hiew
Board Director
Read moreSelina Hiew
Board Director
Connect on LinkedInSelina was appointed to the board in May 2020 as a shareholding director. She brings over 20 years of experience in Financial services, across banking, superannuation and investment products. She has deep understanding and expertise in capital, funding, risk management, data and IT project delivery.
During her executive career, Selina served on numerous committees including: the Macquarie Bank Mortgages leadership team, Banking & Financial Services Data Governance committee and Risk management committee , and IT project delivery steering committees. She also chaired the Mortgages Pricing committee and Customer retention committee. She provides a breadth of highly valuable experience for a financial services data company like Adviser ratings.
Selina has a Bachelor of Economics in Actuarial Studies & Finance (Macquarie University), Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investment (FINSIA), Diploma in Financial & Debt markets (AFMA).
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Professor Jerry Parwada
Chair of Ratings Committee
Read moreProfessor Jerry Parwada
Chair of Ratings Committee
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterDr. Jerry Parwada is a Professor of Finance at UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia. He joined UNSW in 2003 and served as Head of School - Banking and Finance from 2011-2017. Jerry's research specializes in investment management and financial markets. His works have been published in internationally renowned finance journals, including Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and Financial Management. He has three years’ investment banking experience and is an active consultant to industry on issues relating to managed funds and valuation. He has served, since 2012, on the Credit Suisse Endowment Advisory Council. He is on the FINSIA Industry Council for Institutional Markets and the Australian Lenders' Index Expert Panel. Jerry is a regular speaker at local and international finance conferences. He holds PhD and MBA degrees from Edith Cowan University, an MPhil from UNSW Australia, a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from NUST (Zimbabwe) and studied leadership at the Wharton School's Aresty Institute of Executive Education.
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Angus Woods
Managing Director
Read moreAngus Woods
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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Mark Hoven
CEO Wealth
Read moreMark Hoven
CEO Wealth
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterMark Hoven joined the Adviser Rating team in November 2017 as CEO Wealth. Mark has worked in the Wealth industry for the last 20 years in investment research, ratings and data-analytic businesses following an earlier career as a petroleum engineer at Exxon. He spent 10 years with Standard & Poor's, establishing and growing a start-up fund research business to top 2 in Australia before running the global business based in London. Most recently as Head of Wealth Segment at Equifax, he worked with leading super funds, life insurers, advice licensees, administrators and wealth-tech platforms on data-driven digital solutions to improve customer engagement / acquisition, business growth, operating efficiencies and risk management.Mark: "My passion is building emergent businesses that break new ground. My time working for a global ratings agency also embedded a strong appreciation for the power of ratings and benchmarks to help set standards, measure performance, and provide transparency to any industry. The Adviser Ratings platform has the potential to fundamentally change the relationship between the Australian community and the financial advice industry. By using data-driven evidence-based mechanisms to build greater trust in the channel by both consumers and wealth management participants, we can expose more Australians to the long-term financial benefits of good advice." -
Claire Virtue
Head of Operations
Read moreClaire Virtue
Head of Operations
Connect on LinkedInClaire joined the Adviser Ratings team in November 2018 and brings over 15 years operations management experience to the team. Working in Asia-Pacific for the past 7 years in senior regional roles for multi-national data driven businesses, Claire brings strong project management, quality assurance, operations and client management experience to Adviser Ratings.
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Adrian Jeurgens
Customer Success Manager
Read moreAdrian Jeurgens
Customer Success Manager
Connect on LinkedInAdrian Juergens joined Adviser Ratings in July 2020. He has 15 years’ experience working in Sales and Marketing support roles, both for Fund Managers and consulting to Fund Managers. Prior to joining Adviser Ratings, Adrian was the founding partner of Crinkle Cut Digital, a boutique CRM consultancy specialising in Salesforce solutions for small to medium Financial Service clients. Adrian manages our Nightingale and Wrap Reporting client relationships.
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Lara Pickering
Data Integrity Lead & Audience Management
Read moreLara Pickering
Data Integrity Lead & Audience Management
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterLara started working in the Finance Industry in 1993 when the Future Exchange still had a live trading floor! She has watched the processes change dramatically over her career but the goal to achieve financial success for the end client remains the same. Her experience has included everything from back office settlements in equities, fixed interest and options, to bookings and assisting advisers in caring for their clients with reporting, trading and any issues which arised. Lara has worked in both Australia and the United Kingdom in varying roles.
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Nicolas Pena McGough
Econometrician
Read moreNicolas Pena McGough
Econometrician
Connect on LinkedInNicolas has 5 years experience as an Econometrican 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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Christopher Zinn
Adviser Ratings Communications Director
Read moreChristopher Zinn
Adviser Ratings Communications Director
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterI’ve been involved in journalism and consumer affairs for all of my career with an increasing focus on financial services because of the enormous scope there is to improve outcomes for ordinary people. I run an initiative called determinedconsumer.com.au aimed at fostering greater consumer empowerment in markets through the application of new technologies and encouraging us all to take a little effort to get better returns. For much of 2014 I also grew a campaign called 'Save Our FOFA' aimed at spreading awareness and support for the Future of Financial Advice legislation. I worked with Angus at One Big Switch where I was campaigns and communications director and helped explain and grow projects such as the Big Electricity Switch. Previously I learned the ropes of the consumer movement as the media spokesman and campaigns chief for CHOICE where I first came to grips with the challenges and conflicts inherent in the structure of financial planning in Australia. I have worked as a television and radio reporter with the ABC in current affairs and documentary series as well as a reporter and producer at Channel Nine for shows such as Today and Sunday. I have worked for several newspapers in Australia and overseas including The Guardian.
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David Koch
Media Advisor
Read moreDavid Koch
Media Advisor
Connect on LinkedIn Connect on TwitterWith a 27-year career as one of Australia's leading finance journalists and commentators, David's knowledge of money and business is extensive. In fact, in a survey conducted by Money Management, David was voted by his peers as one of the ten most influential people of all time in the Australian financial services industry.
While now best known as the co-host of popular Seven Network breakfast program Sunrise, "Kochie" has several finance-related career highlights including; founding Personal Investment magazine, launching Money magazine in the United Kingdom, founding industry trade mag Money Management and founding Australia's biggest-selling small business magazine "My Business". Prior to Sunrise, he was the Seven Network's Finance Editor, and hosted the daily Sky Business Report on Sky News Australia.
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Alex Watson
Consultant Chief Technology Officer
Read moreAlex Watson
Consultant Chief Technology Officer
Connect on LinkedInAlex is a senior IT executive who is highly experienced in software development in financial services, with strong technical and business/management skills, and a proven track record for building successful agile teams that achieve business goals.
Alex holds a Bachelor of Computer Science (BSc) from the University of Melbourne.
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Harrison Zhou
Technical Lead
Read moreHarrison Zhou
Technical Lead
Connect on LinkedInHarrison has over 15 years experience as a full-stack developer building and integrating software and services. Harrison’s experience includes developing large e-commerce web platforms and marketplaces. Harrison is an AWS Solution Architect Professional and has a Bachelor and Master of Engineering, Automation Control from East China University of Science and Technology.
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Jude McCarthy
Senior UI/UX Designer
Read moreJude McCarthy
Senior UI/UX Designer
Connect on LinkedInWith 15+ years experience designing software and websites in the digital space. Jude is a multidisciplinary UI and product designer with a focus on visual design. With a lot of front-end development experience, Jude worked with digital agencies and high profile clients across various industries before joining Adviser Ratings.
With a deep understanding of user needs, Jude focuses her knowledge of design solutions to Adviser Ratings' suite of product offerings.