Last week ASIC took two former directors of the company behind the First Guardian fund to court, and it took me back to what I’d said in May and June 2014, when I spent a few weeks talking about very little except money.

I went around Australia twice that year in a couple of weeks, giving 11 keynotes to financial audiences for two different clients, and in between I was on ABC radio talking about the same thing.

On 26 May I was on ABC Bay Wide with David Dowsett, and we got onto who or what will be advising us about our money in the future.

That same week Business Insider quoted me saying “We will now start far younger”, and that we’d get advice in real time.

Twelve years on, a lot of that’s turning up, so this week’s piece is that question again, the future of financial advice: who or what you’ll ask about your money, and who you’d trust with the big decisions.

Key points

• In 2014 I said we’d start getting money advice far younger, and in real time. It’s arriving, mostly as general guidance from super funds and apps.
• The government has announced plans for super funds and life insurers to employ a new class of adviser for members’ everyday questions, with no commissions or bonuses.
• ASIC’s Moneysmart says AI tools generally aren’t licensed to give personal financial advice, and that AI only knows what you tell it.
• ASIC has begun civil penalty proceedings over the First Guardian fund, which more than 6,000 Australians put money into, largely from their super. These are allegations, not findings.
• Brokers now write a record 81.6% of new home loans, up from 53.9% in 2018.
• I think the future of financial advice is splitting in two: the everyday answers, and the big decisions, where people still want someone they can see.

How we lost touch with our money

On ABC Perth that June I told James Lush our story started in the early 70s, when credit cards arrived.

Before that a lot of people put money into envelopes or on lay-by, and when they ran out of cash, they’d really run out, the way you run out of water.

The more distance we put between ourselves and the folding stuff, the easier it got to spend past our limits without really knowing where we stood.

The bill came once a month, and I said we’d tell ourselves off for about 45 seconds, then go and do “a bit of retail therapy” to get over it.

When we did go to an adviser, it was with what I called the Oliver principle, like Oliver Twist holding out his bowl, “Here’s my finances, please give me more”, and they’d put a plan together for us.

I told James we were already doing 80% of our retail banking online and 40% of it through apps, which a decade earlier almost every audience had told me would never happen in their lifetime.

I also said our kids would probably be working into their 80s and maybe beyond, with less certainty about jobs and pensions, so all of us would have to make the money we have go a lot further.

My bet was that once all of it sat on one screen in front of us, we’d feel connected to our money again and make better decisions, and we’d go looking for wise counsel to make them with. I called that financial intimacy.

I said Gen X, Y and Z were very comfortable taking advice, and that each of us would end up with a “financial health and well-being tribe”, my accountant, my financial adviser and me, all working off the same live picture.

What’s arriving now

In August the government announced plans for super funds and life insurers to employ a new class of adviser.

They’d answer members’ everyday questions, with no commissions, bonuses or volume-based pay, and banks and advice licensees won’t be allowed to offer them. The plan is to look at widening it after three years.

More of us are also asking an app or an AI chat what to do with our money, and ASIC’s Moneysmart says those tools generally aren’t licensed to give personal advice, and that “AI only knows what you tell it”.

Back in 2014 Business Insider wrote that most people went looking for an adviser at about 53, with a bit of super and eight to 10 years before the big retirement decisions.

Now the first money advice a 25-year-old gets could well come from their super fund’s helpline or the app on their phone, decades before anyone back then would have walked into a planner’s office.

So the starting younger has turned up, and so has the real time, though so far it’s mostly general guidance.

The First Guardian case

On 30 October ASIC began civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against two former directors of Falcon Capital, the company that ran the First Guardian fund.

ASIC says more than 6,000 Australians put more than $600 million into the fund between 2019 and 2025, largely from their super.

It alleges investments were made without adequate due diligence or security, and that at least $57 million was paid to entities controlled by one or other of the two men. These are allegations before the court, and none of them has been proven.

This case is about the two directors and the company that ran the fund. Whatever the court decides, I’d be having a look at where my own super sits and who’s keeping an eye on it.

A person you can see

In March 2018 I did a five-city keynote tour on the future of mortgage broking, and I told the brokers they were finance futurists, because every loan they write is about somebody’s future.

My advice to the room was to “be human, stop giving customer service and instead provide extraordinary customer experiences”.

I also said “people love getting advice from a person they can see and trust”, and “Keep humanity at the front and centre of everything you do.”

The year before, writing about trusting strangers in the sharing economy, I’d said trust “was hard enough when we could look each other in the eye”, and that was before most of us had ever typed a money question into a chat window.

This September the MFAA reported that brokers wrote 81.6% of new home loans in the June quarter, a record, up from 53.9% in June 2018, the year of that tour.

So I think plenty of us still want someone to walk us through the big ones, even with every rate and repayment calculator in the world sitting on our phones.

The future of financial advice is splitting in two

I think advice is splitting in two, with the everyday answers going one way and the big decisions going the other.

One part is the everyday answers, like how much to put away, what that fee on your statement means and whether you’re on track for the life you want at 67.

That part is moving to your fund, your bank’s app and the software beside them, and I’d expect it to get quicker, and the price to come down as it goes, so more of us can get a bit of advice.

The other part is the big decisions, like a separation, selling the business or a parent going into care, and for those I think people still go looking for someone they can see.

Following the ripples

The ripples are what each change might set off, and the first one here is that members get their first money advice from their fund or an app, years before they’d ever meet an adviser, and they get used to quick answers.

The second ripple is that the easy questions leave the adviser’s desk, and their days fill up with the hard ones, family, health and selling a business.

The third ripple is about what an adviser gets paid for, and I think it becomes knowing you and your family over years, which fits with what I said in 2014, that advisers would “work better, deeper and for longer with clients”.

If most of what a practice does is answer easy questions, I think it’ll have a rough few years, and the ones people ring first when something big happens, who can show them where their money sits and who checks it, will do well.

What I’d do with it

For my own money, I’d let the app and the fund take the everyday questions, and for the big decision I’d want someone I could sit down with, and I’d ask them where the money actually sits and who checks it.

I’d want to know how I’d hear if something changed and who I’d ring that day, and if they couldn’t tell me, I’d look elsewhere.

If I gave advice or wrote loans for a living, I’d start with the clients I already know, spend more of my time with them, and make it easy for them to see who’s minding their money.

I’d probably start by ringing the people I haven’t spoken to in a year, because an app might get to them first, and ask what’s coming up for them.

If I ran a super fund, I’d want members to know where the fund’s guidance stops and who they can ring when the question gets big, and I’d have a real person answering.

Any of that could start now, and those are your immediate futures.

The question I’m left with

Who would you ring before a big money decision, and have you ever actually sat down with them? Tell me in the comments, or write back to me wherever you found this.

And if you’ve still got an old bank passbook or a lay-by docket in a drawer somewhere, I’d love to hear about that too.

Choose forward.

If you’d like a short read every Tuesday on what’s coming and what it means for your work: welcome.morrismisel.com/join

If you’re planning a conference or a planning day for advisers, brokers or super fund teams, I’ll bring this into the room with you: morrismisel.com/speaking

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Morris Misel is a foresight strategist, keynote speaker, and trusted adviser. He works with organisations to interpret what’s changing and make better decisions about what comes next. Heard by more than a million people a year on stage and in the media.

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Questions people ask

What is the new class of adviser?

It’s a new kind of adviser that super funds and life insurers would employ to answer members’ everyday questions. The government announced plans for it in August 2026, with no commissions, bonuses or volume-based pay, and banks and advice licensees can’t run them. Its scope is to be reviewed after three years.

Can an AI chat give me financial advice?

ASIC’s Moneysmart says AI platforms are generally not licensed to give personal financial advice. They can explain ideas, but AI only knows what you tell it, so check what it says against trusted, independent sources and see a licensed adviser for personal advice.

What is financial intimacy?

It’s Morris Misel’s 2014 name for feeling connected to your money again because it’s on a screen in front of you all the time. He expected it to make us better informed and keener to look for wise counsel, with an adviser able to see the same live picture.

What happened with First Guardian?

On 30 October 2026 ASIC began civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against two former directors of Falcon Capital, the responsible entity of the First Guardian Master Fund, and sought leave to proceed against Falcon, which is in liquidation. ASIC says more than 6,000 Australians invested more than $600 million, largely from their super. These are allegations, not findings.

What is a ripple effect?

A ripple is what a change might set off. The first ripple is what might happen directly, the second is what that might set off, and the third is what might open up or come under threat.

How much of Australia’s home lending goes through brokers?

The MFAA reported that brokers wrote a record 81.6% of new residential home loans in the June 2026 quarter, up from 53.9% in June 2018.

Sources

Morris Misel, A brave new financial intimacy, ABC Bay Wide with David Dowsett, 26 May 2014.

Business Insider, republished on morrisfuturist.com, 28 May 2014.

Morris Misel, Financial Intimacy, ABC Perth with James Lush, 14 June 2014 (recording in his archive).

Morris Misel, In the future who will you trust?, ABC Far North, 25 September 2017.

Morris Misel, Future of Mortgage Broking, Australian Broker, 23 April 2018.

Investment Magazine, New pathways to retirement as govt green lights new class of adviser for super funds, 19 August 2026.

ASIC Moneysmart, AI and money decisions, updated 17 August 2026.

ASIC, media release 26-263MR, 30 October 2026.

MFAA, Mortgage broker market share reaches record 81.6%, 3 September 2026.