Australian investors are more willing to retain their wealth providers than their peers overseas, according to a new report from one of the world’s largest professional services firms.
This signals deeper trust between Australian local investors and their primary wealth advisers, EY said in its 2025 EY Global Wealth Research Report.
EY said 18% of Australian respondents to a survey said they were likely to change their primary wealth provider within the next three years, well below the global average of 29%.
But rising expectations were pushing wealth managers to modernise and personalise their services, the firm said in the sixth edition of the report.
“Our survey suggests that Australian investors continue to value strong relationships with their wealth managers and advisers,” EY Regional Wealth and Asset Management Leader Oceania Rita Da Silva said in a media release.
She said Australia’s robust regulatory guardrails and work to build trust following the Financial Services Royal Commission had gone a long way to creating an environment where investors were less likely to be considering a shift to primary providers.
But it was essential that wealth managers kept pace with evolving client expectations in the face of greater market volatility and the potential impact of the Quality of Advice Review if they wanted to maintain their advantage.
The report surveyed more than 3,500 investors ranging from ‘mass affluent’ to ‘ultra-high-net worth’ people earning between US$250,000 and US$30 million a year across 30 markets including Australia.
The findings showed Australian investors were more likely to use a private bank as their primary adviser (19%), higher than global and Asia-Pacific levels (13% each) and second only behind full-service banks (23%) locally.
Key factors considered by Australian respondents when selecting their primary wealth advisors include investment performance (70% identified it ‘as a most important factor’), fee structure (62%) and recommendations from friends and family (29%).
But EY said 22% of Australian investors planned to move more than half their portfolio away from their primary wealth manager in the next three years and 43% expected to increase meetings in response to increased volatility in global markets.
