Adviser angst as CSLR levy invoices arrive

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

23 April 2026

Financial advisers have begun receiving their Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) levy notices from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (AIC) and are lamenting that $8,000 in 2024-25 turned into over $20,000 covering 2025-26 and 2026-27.

The full impact of the Government’s approach to the CSLR sub-sector cost over-run on individual advice practices has been laid bare in the levy notices, with advisers sharing with Financial Newswire the gravity of the situation.

In one case, an adviser pointed to a 136% jump in their levy bill from 2024-25 to the latest levy billing period and said it would have a fundamental impact on his business.

The levy notice, which has been provided to Financial Newswire, shows an amount in excess of $5,000 for the CSLR Special Levy applying to 2025-26 and an amount in excess of $18,000 for 2026-27 annual levy.

An adviser told Financial Newswire that while the special levy and the increased annal levy had been well flagged by the CSLR and ASIV, it was nonetheless disheartening and concerning to receive the actual invoice.

“The Government simply cannot keep increasing the levy at this rate,” he said. “Small financial advice firms cannot afford to keep paying these amounts.

“We’re effectively being asked to keep subsidising the consequences of large scale failures while trying to stay viable ourselves.”

The special levy was announced in early December, last year, with the Financial Advice Association of Australia noting that while the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Daniel Mulino had decided to spread the levy across all 23 retail-facing subsectors financial advisers were lumped with the largest allocation of 22%.

The FAAA said at the time that the situation was both unfair and unsustainable.

“The impact of this allocation basis is an additional $10.4 million levy for financial advisers – in addition to the $20 million that financial advisers have already paid in CSLR levies this year. This represents the biggest single allocation of the special levy to any sector. In total, financial advisers will pay $30.4 million this year – 45% of the total levy of $67.3 million. Using ASIC’s adviser numbers of 15,041, that’s an extra almost $700 per adviser – taking the total cost this year to over $2,000 per adviser. This takes no account of the likely substantial decline in adviser numbers at the end of this year,” the FAAA said.