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Reshaping Wealth Management - What a structurally different world demands of financial advisers 

  • Richard Boyfield
    Head of Consulting, Investments & Retirement, Mercer
  • Rebecca Jacques
    Head of Wealth Management Investment Solutions
  • Luke Fitzgerald
    Head of Wealth Management, Pacific

The key themes influencing financial advice in 2026

Financial advisers are navigating a structurally different environment defined by persistent market volatility, evolving retirement frameworks and significant demographic change.

Reshaping Wealth Management explores how these shifts are altering the advice landscape across Australia and New Zealand. Long-standing assumptions are being tested, requiring advisers to take a more considered approach to portfolio construction, risk management and retirement income strategy. Download Reshaping Wealth Management to learn more about the forces influencing financial advice today and into the future.

Six considerations redefining advice in 2026

As the advice landscape continues to evolve, advisers face a complex set of challenges and opportunities shaped by structural economic change, demographic transition and rising regulatory expectations. The report highlights six key considerations for financial advisers in 2026 where advisers can concentrate their efforts to manage risk effectively, deliver sustainable retirement outcomes and build resilient advice businesses:

  • Is your volatility playbook built for the current environment?
  • Do you fully understand the risks embedded in your private market allocations?
  • Who is accountable for retirement outcomes?

These considerations reflect the need to balance core fundamentals with forward-looking priorities. By addressing these considerations together, advisers can respond more effectively to a changing environment while supporting client outcomes and positioning their businesses for long-term continuity.

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It signals that advisers are operating under conditions shaped by long‑term economic, demographic and regulatory change, rather than familiar market cycles. The implications for advice extend across investment, retirement and business strategy.

Shifts in market behaviour and asset relationships are challenging long‑held diversification frameworks. Advisers are increasingly reassessing how portfolios are built and how risk is understood in this new environment.

As private market access expands, advisers are facing new opportunities alongside additional complexity. Understanding how these exposures behave, particularly under stressed conditions, is becoming an increasingly important part of portfolio decision‑making.

With more clients entering retirement, expectations around income sustainability, risk management and accountability are increasing. Advisers are playing a critical role within a broader retirement ecosystem that continues to evolve.

Industry demographics, regulatory change and shifting client expectations mean succession requires earlier planning and clearer intent. For many practices, it has become a core part of long‑term business sustainability.
About the author(s)
Richard Boyfield

Head of Consulting, Investments & Retirement, Mercer

Rebecca Jacques

Head of Wealth Management Investment Solutions

Luke Fitzgerald

Head of Wealth Management, Pacific

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