Your Adviser Status Badge helps consumers navigate the variability of advice quality and identify trusted professionals.
All advisers on our platform have passed the minimum requirements. As you grow your years of experience, improve your qualifications, maintain compliance, engage with clients, and earn positive reviews, your Status Badge is likely to improve.
Your Adviser Status Badge works much like a credit score. It reflects multiple factors that build strength over time. While some single actions, such as updating your qualifications or memberships on ASIC, may result in an immediate status badge change, most improvements come from consistency across qualifications, education, memberships, compliance, experience, and client engagement. Just like a credit score, meaningful and lasting improvements are built steadily over time.
We worked with independent academics and economists to design this rating system. Whilst not foolproof, it is a transparent scoring tool that reflects the evolving expectations of the community, government, regulators, and consumer sentiment. As the industry evolves, our methodology is regularly reviewed and improved to reflect these changes.
What factors influence your Status Badge?
Your badge score combines data from official registers and client engagement. The main components are:
1. Qualifications & Education
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Formal qualifications listed on the ASIC Financial Advisers Register (FAR).
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Additional subjects or bridging courses completed to meet current education regulatory requirements.
👉 For detailed guidance, see Understanding Adviser Education Requirements & Pathways.
2. Professional Associations & Memberships
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Memberships to recognised industry or professional associations, as listed on ASIC.
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Memberships help demonstrate commitment to professional development and ethical standards.
3. Experience
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Number of years recorded as a practising adviser on ASIC’s register.
4. Compliance & Conduct
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Compliance checks and CPD compliance.
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Any bannings, disqualifications, or restrictions recorded on ASIC.
5. Client Reviews
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Reviews left by clients on Adviser Ratings.
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Positive engagement with clients is considered alongside professional credentials.
Where does the information come from?
To standardise adviser profiles, we import details directly from the ASIC Financial Advisers Register (FAR).
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Only the information current on ASIC will appear on your Adviser Ratings profile.
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If details are missing or outdated, they must first be updated with ASIC (your licensee can usually do this).
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Once ASIC updates are complete, the new information will flow through to Adviser Ratings in our next system refresh.
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Client reviews and ratings are collected directly through the Adviser Ratings platform.
How is my score calculated?
Using the methodology of our patented algorithm, we apply a weighting across the categories above. These weightings balance professional qualifications, compliance, and client engagement to produce your Adviser Status Badge.
(Our methodology was updated in November 2021 after a large-scale review of adviser scoring. We continue to update it to reflect current regulations, industry standards, and consumer expectations. You can view our white paper, ‘The Evolution of the Adviser Ratings Scoring,’ here.)
What can I do to improve my status badge?