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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Chris Mather

Self-licensing specialist My Dealer Services (MDS) has secured access to Colonial First State’s (CFS) award winning FirstTech technical services team to provide its network of more than 400 financial advisers operating under 110 AFSLs with high quality technical support across a broad range of advice areas.

The educational partnership is the fourth new or enhanced service offering MDS has provided its rapidly growing member network this year as it embarks on a strategic growth initiative.

The Sydney-based company supported more than 20% of all Australian financial advisers who achieved self-licensing in 2024 and is working at a cracking pace to not only significantly grow its adviser network in 2025 but also its network support offerings.

MDS Director and Founder Alexander Euvrard said the educational partnership with CFS would provide MDS adviser members with the most up to date online technical reference and strategy guides covering a range of areas including superannuation, tax, self-managed super funds, aged care, social security and estate planning.

Members of the MDS community would also benefit from access to CFS FirstTech podcasts, webinars, monthly bulletins and fact sheets that could be shared with clients and used in client newsletters, he added.

CFS Business Executive Director of New Business, Chris Mather, welcomed the initiative and said “CFS is delighted to partner with MDS to help advisers deliver great outcomes for their clients.”

MDS Head of Strategy, Ashley Mahadeea said that apart from primarily guiding and supporting advisers through the self-licensing process, MDS was firmly focused on adding value by providing a wider range of additional services.

“Our educational partnership with CFS is a great example of how we do this. We go out on behalf of time-poor smaller adviser groups and find the best and most innovative providers in their field to support them as needed at competitive rates.

“Over the coming months, we will be launching additional services and reaching out to more advisers 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 Mahadeea said.

This year MDS has also partnered with Claras, an Australian Fintech to provide advisers with a powerful AI-driven software tool to turn recorded conversations with clients into accurate, and comprehensive file notes that ensure data security. It has also launched a new paraplanning and administration service for its members wanting SOA creation support, in collaboration with Broker Support Global (BSG) which has large paraplanner and admin teams overseas as well as key staff in Australia.

The company has also rolled out a new MDS Licensee Compliance Portal which allows members to access a secure dashboard that keeps them abreast of all key compliance dates and requirements and provides access to a live newsfeed with the latest industry governance and regulatory updates.

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MDS supported more than 20% of all Australian financial advisers who achieved self-licensing last year and is working to not only significantly grow its adviser network in 2025 but also offer a more extensive support service and product offering.

The Sydney-based company has partnered with Claras, an Australian Fintech to provide advisers with a powerful AI-driven software tool to turn recorded conversations with clients into accurate, and comprehensive file notes that ensure data security.

MDS Director and Founder Alexander Euvrard said the tool contained embedded templates which ensured only relevant information was captured. “Claras produces incredible file notes as well as summaries with compliance in mind within minutes. Gone are the days where you have to remember a long conversation with clients and make sure the compliance aspect is on point. The average time to produce a file note and email summary is five minutes, including time spent double checking it,” he said.

MDS has also launched a new paraplanning and administration service for its members wanting SOA creation support, in collaboration with Broker Support Global (BSG) which has large paraplanner and admin teams overseas as well as key staff in Australia. BSG has an experienced quality assurance team that rigorously checks all advice documents to ensure that regulatory compliance standards are met.

The company has also rolled out a new MDS Licensee Compliance Portal which allows members to access a secure dashboard that keeps them abreast of all key compliance dates and requirements and provides access to a live newsfeed with the latest industry governance and regulatory updates. The portal also provides members with access to recorded webinars and articles as well as the ability to upload and maintain all compliance-related documents intraportal.

Mr Euvrard said apart from guiding and supporting advisers through the self-licensing process, MDS was focused on providing a wide range of additional services to its community of advisers.

“Our job is to go out, do the research and find the best and most innovative service providers in their field that can support our advisers. Having scale means we can negotiate lower costs. Many of our members are part of a small team and they simply do not have the time or the resources to go through this process.

“Over the coming months, we will be launching additional services and reaching out to more advisers 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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Ashley Mahadeea

Self licensing specialist My Dealer Services (MDS) has appointed Ashley Mahadeea as Head of Strategy as the company looks to significantly grow the depth of services it provides as well as the number of self-licensed advisers it equips and supports.

MDS was established 12 years ago and since then has helped more than 500 businesses set up their own ACL or AFSL license. It currently provides around 100 subscribed ASFL clients with compliance and business support and access to a community of advisers without the constraints or conflicts that can arise with large licensee dealer groups.

Ash is an expert at advising FinTech start-ups and growth-phase companies on launch strategies, strategic planning, competitive analysis, and business development. He has joined MDS from global wealth-tech firm GBST, where he was Head of Client Partnerships. Prior to this he had the same role with Advice Intelligence for six years. Advice Intelligence is a provider of cloud-based end-to-end financial planning software which was taken over by GBST in the middle of last year.

Ash has also worked as a financial adviser and is currently National Deputy Chair of the Gen Next Community of Practice at the Financial Advice Association Australia to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, skills, experience and networks from experienced advisers to those starting their financial advice career.

MDS Director and founder Alexander Euvrard said Ash’s depth of experience working with financial advisers and involvement in high impact industry initiatives would help MDS achieve its growth agenda.

“Ash’s role is to help drive this growth through strong client relationships, product innovation and developing solutions to advisers’ problems. Over the coming months, we will be reaching out to more advisers to share our core belief that self-licensing is nothing more than removing a layer to allow advisors and practices to run the business their way, with the client front and centre of everything they do,” he said.

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MyNextAdvice is leading the way financial advisers understand and manage their client relationships, through a dynamic platform that uses authentic client feedback to drive better client experience and business performance. It is designed to eliminate the guesswork traditionally associated with managing client relationships – how strong is each of my relationships, what is each relationship worth commercially, are any relationships at risk, and how can I perform better?

My Dealer Services – a consultancy business that helps financial advisers across a range of areas from compliance management to establishing an AFSL – provides recommendations to its members on how to drive better performance within their practices.

“We are at the forefront of progressive solutions for our members and MyNextAdvice fills a critical gap to support advisers adjust to the heightened expectations of clients and the general community towards client-centricity” My Dealer Services Director, Alexander Euvrard, said. “We know that across the more than 70 AFSLs we work with, advisers are looking for the best solutions that allow them to become more focused on their clients’ experience and the implications that has for improved business performance.”

“Working with MyNextAdvice really is a meeting of minds and represents a win for advisers, their clients, and My Dealer Services.”

My Dealer Services provides AFSL establishment and compliance services to its customers. So, the ability of MyNextAdvice to help advisers collect contemporaneous data from the client’s perspective is key to helping monitor performance and deal with potential risks.

MyNextAdvice also acts a growth engine by helping advisers leverage their performance to improve client retention, capture testimonials and identify potential referral opportunities. Its unique ability to capture each client’s experience and combine this with financial data to estimate the client’s lifetime value helps advisers and AFSLs better manage their client portfolios. MyNextAdvice also produces a Game Plan to guide advisers on performance improvement initiatives based on the feedback received.

“We are excited about supporting the My Dealer Services network as they look to use technology to enable the transformation of their businesses,” MyNextAdvice CEO, Ray McHale said.

“A key requirement of the emerging financial advice profession is being able to deliver a great client experience and our technology allows AFSLs and their advisers to keep their finger on the pulse to build and maintain increasingly valuable relationships with clients. We produce metrics that matter for taking charge of and leveraging client relationships rather than rely on outdated surface-level or vanity metrics” Dr McHale continued.

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