Skip to main content

Advisers already face 15%+ CSLR levy increases

Mike Taylor2 September 2025
CSLR levy

The Treasury consultation around the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) exceeding the financial planning sub-sector levy cap closed on Friday at much the same time advice licensees were being told their levies are “ready for payment”.

And licensees discovered by logging on to the CSLR portal provided by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) that their levies had commonly gone up by at least 15% to 17%.

Reaching out to Financial Newswire, advice licensees complained that over the same 12 months period Australia consumer price index had risen by just to 2.1%, meaning that the CSLR levies had risen by an order of about 7.3 times the CPI.

The Treasury consultation paper has thrown up a number of options and scenarios for addressing the $47 million cost over-run for the financial advice sub-sector, with a significant number of stakeholder responses arguing strongly against the minister imposing a single sub-sector special levy.

Instead, most responses seen by Financial Newswire support the minister spreading the cost of the special levy across all sub-sector while arguing that the only real answer lies in a comprehensive rewrite of the CSLR funding mechanism to include product manufacturers and managed investment schemes in particular.

The responses have also pointed to submissions already made by stakeholders to the Treasury post-implementation review of the CSLR the consultation for which kicked off in late January and finished in early February but has still yet to report.

The key element in the terms of reference for the post-implementation review has been “how the CSLR funding model is formulated, including its potential impacts on businesses who fund the industry levy”.

The bottom line of most public responses to the post-implementation review has been that the current financial adviser population is not adequate to fund the scheme as it currently exists and that managed investment schemes must be made to pull their weight.

The Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) has consistently argued for an extension of the scope of the CSLR to cover Managed Investment Schemes.

Mike Taylor

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

Subscribe to comments
Be notified of
7 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
DO NOT PAY
1 day ago

DO NOT PAY CSLR
GOVT THEFT FROM INNOCENT ADVISERS IS WRONG.
How about MIS pay for their frauds & failures.
How about ASIC pay for their useless regulatory inactions.
How about Dodgy Dixon’s owners, managers & MIS pay.

Alan
21 hours ago
Reply to  DO NOT PAY

Let us all know how that works out for you, you will have plenty of time on your hands after

Enjoy it
21 hours ago
Reply to  Alan

It needs to be all AFSLs and Advisers not pay.
Or for some reason it seems you like being bent over by Govt, ASIC, AFCA & CSLR.

Researcher
1 day ago

It is pretty amusing when the government and regulators continually complain about the cost of financial advice when they are the biggest reason why the cost keeps increasing.

Terry G
1 day ago
Reply to  Researcher

It’s like someone strangling you whilst telling you to calm down and take deep breaths.

It's the red tape.
5 hours ago
Reply to  Researcher

And yet is so very easy to fix.
Which means that the powers that be do not want it fixed.

Andy
1 day ago

Plus include the ASIC Industry Funding Levy and the adviser sector is being right royally screwed over