A house of savings, drawn in elevation

Financial advice, drawn from the foundations up

Financial advice helps people make decisions about money, and it comes in two kinds: general advice, which does not consider your situation, and personal advice, where the adviser has taken one or more of your objectives, your financial situation or your needs into account. This drawing set, published by Dotto, takes the subject apart one sheet at a time: what advice is, who may give it, what it costs, and where a complaint goes.

General information, not financial advice. Moneysmart is the Federal Government website brought to you by ASIC, the financial services regulator, and it is the place to check any rule on these pages.

Project
A house of savings
Drawing
Elevation and six sheets
Scale
Not to scale; no growth drawn
Checked
8 October 2026
Drawing 00 · The elevation

The house, and the sheet each part is drawn on

Foundations first, because the kind of advice decides the rules that follow. Then the walls: who is allowed to advise, and what they must put in writing. The window looks ahead, and the roof is what shelters you when something leaks.

Elevation, not to scale. The numbers match the schedule of sheets. The drawing shows how the topics fit together; it shows no return and promises no growth.
  1. 01
    FoundationsWhat financial advice is

    What advice can cover, the ways it is delivered, and the six marks of good advice that ASIC describes.

  2. 02
    FoundationsGeneral versus personal advice

    Where the law draws the line, the warning that travels with general advice, and the best interests duty.

  3. 03
    WallsChecking an adviser on the register

    An entry on the financial advisers register, read one field at a time.

  4. 04
    WallsFees and statements of advice

    The fees an adviser may charge, what a Statement of Advice must contain, and the yearly consent to ongoing fees.

  5. 05
    WindowCompound interest and Moneysmart’s calculator

    What each box in the calculator does, the assumptions behind it, and why a projection is a view, not a promise.

  6. 06
    RoofIf advice goes wrong

    From a complaint to the licensee, through AFCA, to the compensation scheme of last resort.

Drawing notes · Words on the plans

Three terms that appear on every sheet

The law and ASIC use a few words with exact meanings. They come up on every page here, so here they are once, in plain words.

AFS licence
An Australian financial services licence. Moneysmart says providers of personal advice, and of most general advice, must hold one or be authorised by a licence holder.
Authorised representative
Someone authorised to represent a business that holds an AFS licence. Moneysmart says an adviser operating properly under a licence either holds one, or is employed by or authorised to represent a business that does.
Relevant provider
ASIC’s legal term for the person the industry calls a financial adviser: someone authorised to give personal advice to retail clients about relevant financial products.

One more line from ASIC’s definitions is worth holding on to: to call themselves a financial adviser or financial planner, a person must comply with the professional standards and hold authorisation to advise retail clients personally on relevant financial products. Sheet 03 shows where to see that for a named person.

Drawing notes · Who checks what

The bodies that hold the rules up

Four bodies appear across these sheets. Each does a different job, and knowing which is which helps a reader start in the right place.

  • Moneysmart

    ASIC’s consumer website, with guides to choosing and working with an adviser and the search page for the financial advisers register.

  • ASIC

    The regulator. It takes reports of misconduct, such as someone advising without a licence, but it says it does not resolve complaints or act to get your money back.

  • AFCA

    The Australian Financial Complaints Authority. Moneysmart describes it as a “free, independent service” for complaints about financial service providers, including investments and financial advice.

  • The CSLR

    The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort. It may compensate a person whose AFCA determination has gone unpaid, for example because the firm has gone out of business, and it is legislated to provide up to $150,000.

Financial counselling is a different service again. Moneysmart describes it as free and confidential, offered by not-for-profit community organisations to people in financial hardship, and says counsellors do not give personal product advice. It is the starting point Moneysmart names for anyone in crisis or unable to pay bills.

Each sheet is built from these bodies’ own pages, which are listed at the foot of every page. Begin at the foundations with what financial advice is, or go straight to the sheet you need.