Who are Australia’s most complained about advice groups?

The ombudsman’s complaints data for the 2019-20 financial year showed that AMP Financial Planning had the highest number of consumer complaints, with 122 complaints received by AFCA over the course of the year.  

During the year to June 2020, AMPFP had 101 complaints referred to case management and 16 resolved at the initial registration and referral stage. The dealer group had 27 cases resolved in favour of the complainant, while 12 were resolved in favour of AMP and 20 were discontinued.

Commonwealth Financial Planning recorded the second highest number of complaints over the 2020 financial year, with 79 complaints received by AFCA and 56 progressed to case management. The industry fund-aligned State Super Financial Services had the third highest complaint numbers, with 59 complaints received and 47 progressed to case management.

Digital money management service MyBudget had the fourth highest complaint numbers according to AFCA data with 49 complaints received over the year, while Australian Planning Services, a boutique licensee that ceased its licence in mid-2019, was fifth highest with 45 complaints.

AMPFP, Commonwealth Financial Planning and State Super Financial Services have remained the top three advice groups for complaints since AFCA data began following the establishment of the new ombudsman in November 2018, while MyBudget and the ceased Australian Planning Services have recorded increased complaints over the past year.

AMP-aligned dealer group Charter dropped out of the top five for complaints over the 2020 financial year, as did the liquidated advice group MyPlanner.

Overall, financial advice businesses accounted for 590 complaints over the year, with 60 per cent of complaints relating to super, while 33 per cent related to managed investments.

There were almost 77,000 total complaints received by AFCA during the 2020 financial year, with most of these flowing from banks, general insurers and credit providers.