Alexander Euvrard

With the number of financial advisers recognising the benefit of self-licensing exceeding more than 30% and growing awareness of the associative risk of the dealer group model, now is the time for self-licensed financial advisers to have a greater voice and more recognised industry standing, My Dealer Services (MDS) says.

The self-licensing specialist says organic growth coupled with potential liability from ASIC suing Interprac Financial Planning over the failure of the collapsed Shield and First Guardian investment funds had put a rocket under the number of advisers considering the self-licensed model.

“With such a potentially large fallout from the Interprac failures more financial advisers are looking to take control of their businesses having come to understand the potential shared risk of working under large licensees and the potential repercussions of licensee failure extending to the individual advisers and practices. In doing so they are realising that a lot of the arguments against self-licensing are misrepresented,” says MDS Director and Founder Alexander Euvrard.

“Perhaps the biggest one is that it costs a lot more to be self-licensed than being an Authorised Representative of a larger dealer group. The truth is that with careful cost management and the use of efficient external support services, many self-licensed advisers find they can achieve cost parity with what they were paying in dealer group fees.

“The big difference and benefit is that they gain control of how they deliver advice and administer compliance and build to align with what works for them as a business and their clients”

“The second myth is that getting an AFSL is only for large, established advice practices. The real truth is self-licensing is a viable option and can be a source of competitive advantage for boutique firms and solo advisers who possess strong business management skills, have stable revenue, and a commitment to maintaining high ethical and compliance standards.

“Importantly, self-licensees get to build and promote their own brand without the constraints of being part of a larger group. The key is having the right support network and business structure, not necessarily to be a large size,” Euvrard says.

MDS Head of Strategy Ashley Mahadeea said with self-licensing coming of age, MDS had decided now was the time to host the industry’s first non-aligned Self Licensing Summit (SLS2026) on the 28th of May at the Amora Hotel Jamison in central Sydney.

“A fantastic lineup of presenters at the inaugural SLS 2026 will address all facets of being self-licensed, from Practice Management, Compliance, Technology, Business Growth, Branding, Productivity to Investments.

“Each session has been curated to deliver practical insights and actionable takeaways relevant to today’s evolving environment. All self-licensed advisers from across the industry are invited,” Mahadeea said.

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Ashley Mahadeea

Self-licensing specialist My Dealer Services (MDS) has continued its strong growth spurt, successfully adding 15 new AFSLs as members since January 2025, increasing the number of self-licenced practices it supports by more than 10 percent to 110 AFSLs.

MDS has also rolled out a tranche of five additional service offerings to its network of 400 financial advisers across Australia as it develops a more extensive support service via partnerships. This brings to 10 the number of new offerings it has provided to members so far this year.

In the latest service enhancement, MDS has partnered with Retiremap Quantum to provide members with cost effective access to financial advice modelling solutions and with pricing consultant Peloton Partners, which specialises in accurately pricing financial advice services, ensuring businesses capture their full value while maintaining fairness and transparency.

MDS has also announced a partnership with intelliflo, a global leader in Advicetech, including practice management and digital client engagement software, as well as with Tardigrade Capital, which is expert at helping advisers and their clients better understand and evaluate private asset investment options – especially in the private credit sector.

Furthermore, MDS has unveiled its first Platinum Partner in Morningstar whose breadth of capabilities across financial planning tools, management accounts and investment research solutions, helps its members simplify their day-to-day activities.

Working on expanding MDS’s partnership programme, MDS Head of Strategy Ashley Mahadeea maintains that quality trumps quantity when it comes to partnership and every decision made is in the best interest of members.

“We remain dedicated to empowering members with resources and partnerships that drive better client outcomes. Carefully selecting the right product and service providers to support MDS members is another step toward that commitment,” he said.

MDS Director and Founder Alexander Euvrard said the recent enhancements showed the company was on track with its stated goals of supporting more advisers through the self-licensing process and providing a wider range of additional business-building services to its adviser community.

“Over the coming months, we will be reaching out further to the wider adviser community to share our core belief that self-licensing is nothing more than removing a layer to allow advisers and practices to run their business their way, with the client front and centre of everything they do,” Mr Euvrard said.

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Alexander Euvrard

Self-licensing specialist My Dealer Services (MDS) has welcomed the prospect of industry change under the returned Labor Government but says potential dangers need to be managed beside positive potential regulatory developments.

Speaking at MDS’ inaugural One Day Event for its members at the Fullerton Hotel in Sydney yesterday, Director and Founder, Alexander Euvrard said that after waiting many years since the Hayne Royal Commission for meaningful change he was excited about the way decisions on DBFO and QAR reforms had the potential to lead to new business models and competitive offerings for advisers.

At the same time changing technology and specifically AI was having a seismic impact on the delivery of advice and the industry’s ability to provide, lower cost, tech-heavy advice models that could serve more clients – as well as the currently unadvised – and would enable clients to dictate how they want to be served through episodic advice.

Mr Euvrard said he believed the industry could avoid repeating the mistakes of the past if regulators put in place careful guard rails before allowing large superannuation funds to provide financial advice to members and the immediate challenge of increasing qualified adviser numbers was given the critical focus it deserved.

“We can’t ignore the potential role of, and the possible dangers within, industry super fund advice models over the next five years. I do want to say simple advice done well and accessed by Australians needing it is a game changer.

“These are people who largely do not fit into our business models but absolutely need the access to advice. For those that may be younger, having access to simple advice is actually going to benefit all of us as they will be exposed to the value it creates and be our clients of the future.

“However, allowing lesser qualified advisers to provide this advice at probably the most important time in a client’s life is dangerous and this is without mentioning the dangers of life income products and locking clients in,” Mr Euvrard said.

He added that the only way to increase numbers within the advice profession – now at an all-time low of around 15,000 – was to reduce the red tape around entry level education requirements and remove the policy brick wall that made it difficult for people with tertiary qualifications to transition to advice from any other industry.

“The biggest challenge facing advice practices that we see and hear about every day is the lack of advisers to help grow and support these businesses. It all comes back to making the profession attractive to new entrants and making it achievable to enter,” he said.

Apart from Mr Euvrard, the other event keynote speaker was AMP Deputy Chief Economist Diana Mousina. The event also included speakers from HUB24, Morningstar, Intelliflo, Cordis Asset Management, Financial Adviser Scale Squad, RetireMap, ASO Wealth, Peloton Partners, Briefcase and The Cyber Collective.

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Alexander Euvrard

Self-licensing specialist My Dealer Services (MDS) has called on the Labor government to start its second term with a period of decisive action, focused on growing the number of advice industry professionals and giving the industry clear rules within which it could decide its own destiny.

“With the outgoing Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, admitting he failed to achieve key goals such as removing band-aid solutions and stemming the loss of advisers numbers to the current 15,000, now is the time for decisive action from the new Minister of Financial Services, not continuous promises and inaction,” MDS Director and Founder, Alexander Euvrard said.

Mr Euvrard said that while there has been much talk of DBFO reforms, SOA changes and reducing administration and compliance, these things while important, were all secondary to the imperative of building the industry through increased adviser numbers.

“On the one hand, we are actually in a very favourable environment in that we have a growing demand and a lack of supply. For existing advisers and their practices, it’s a good time to be in business, but that is not sustainable, and it is not ultimately in any of our best interests to stay this way. To succeed, we need to grow, be able to reduce the advice gap and provide succession pathways.

“The only way we will increase the numbers within this profession is to reduce the red tape around the entry level education requirements and remove the policy brick wall that makes it very difficult for people with tertiary qualifications to transition to our industry from any other industry.

“We have heard a lot about how growth will come through efficiencies, technology and outsourcing. Our view is that we have missed the mark on this. The biggest challenge facing advice practises that we see and hear about every day is the lack of advisers to help grow and support these businesses. Unless we get people into the industry, talking about the efficiencies, the technology, the outsourcing is all just noise. It all comes back to making the profession attractive to new entrants and making it achievable to enter,” Mr Euvrard said.

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