How Financial Planners Can (Compliantly) Ask for Google Reviews

10 August 2026·7 min read

Quick answer: Yes, financial planners can ask clients for Google reviews — it's a different, lower-risk category to testimonials on advice performance. The safe approach is to ask about the service experience (communication, clarity, responsiveness) rather than outcomes or returns, avoid cherry-picking only your happiest clients, and time the ask around service milestones, not investment results. This is general information, not a substitute for checking your own AFSL or licensee's review policy first. 📈

Most financial planners we talk to have quietly decided Google reviews are a "no go" — filed under the same rules as testimonials on advice outcomes, so best left alone. That's an understandable assumption, and it's also costing you visibility every single week a competitor down the road picks up three more reviews and outranks you for "financial planner near me." 💖 A general Google review about how someone experienced working with you is a genuinely different thing to a testimonial endorsing your advice or performance — but the line between the two is exactly where planners get nervous, so most just avoid the whole topic.

What most planners get wrong

The mistake isn't asking for reviews — it's not having a system for it, which leads to one of two failure modes. Either nobody asks, ever, so the profile sits at four reviews from 2019 while the practice looks less credible than the mortgage broker next door. Or someone in the practice asks the wrong way — cherry-picking only the clients who just had a great valuation update, or nudging happy clients after a strong quarter while staying quiet after a rough one. That second pattern is the actual risk: it's not "asking for reviews" that's the problem, it's asking in a way that ties the review to investment performance, or selectively soliciting feedback timed to good outcomes. A review that says "my portfolio's up 12%, would recommend" is a very different animal to "they return my calls and explain things clearly" — and treating them the same is where planners either avoid reviews altogether or get the process wrong.

The review-request template

Copy this and adjust for your practice. Notice it never mentions performance, returns or specific advice — it asks about the experience of being a client.

Subject: Quick favour, [Client first name]?

Hi [Client first name],

Thanks for [meeting with me last week / your patience during the annual review / trusting us with your onboarding, etc — service-related, not outcome-related]. If you've got two minutes, would you mind leaving a quick Google review about your experience working with [Practice name]?

No need to write an essay — a line or two on things like how easy we were to reach, whether things were explained clearly, or how the process felt is genuinely useful for us (and helps other people find a planner they can trust).

Here's the link: [Google review link]

Either way, thanks again for being a client.

[Your name]

SMS version: Hi [Client first name], it's [Your name] from [Practice name]. If you've got a spare minute, we'd really appreciate a quick Google review about your experience with us — communication, how clear things were, that kind of thing. Link here: [Google review link]. Thanks so much!

Three ways this plays out, depending on your setup

Solo AFSL-authorised planner: A one-person practice in Robina running her own AFSL can move fastest — she sends the SMS template above two weeks after onboarding is complete and again after each annual review meeting, never after a portfolio update. She keeps a simple spreadsheet logging who was asked and when, so she can show it reflects her whole client base, not just the happy ones, if anyone ever asks.

Boutique advice firm (3-5 planners): A small Broadbeach practice builds the ask into their existing service calendar — the email template goes out automatically 10 days after any client's first full year with the firm, sent by the practice manager rather than the individual adviser, so it reads as a firm-level request about service rather than any one planner fishing for praise.

Planner under a larger licensee with strict review policies: A planner authorised under a big dealer group can't just start sending review requests — many licensees require marketing activity, including review campaigns, to go through compliance sign-off first. Before touching the template above, he checks the licensee's marketing policy or PDS-adjacent guidance, submits the wording for approval (often it needs tweaking to match their house style), and only switches it on once compliance has cleared it in writing. Skipping that step is the single fastest way to end up with a "please cease immediately" email from head office.

How to actually run this without tripping a compliance wire

Three practical rules keep this low-risk. First, ask everyone on a consistent trigger — end of onboarding, annual review complete, or a fixed time after becoming a client — not selectively after a good outcome. A simple log of who was asked and when is enough to demonstrate this if it's ever questioned. Second, keep the ask itself outcome-blind: never phrase it as "happy with your returns?" or anything that could be read as soliciting comment on investment performance or specific advice. Third, never respond to or amplify a review that does comment on performance or returns — if a client goes off-script and mentions their portfolio gains in a review, that's now public content associated with your practice, and depending on your licensee's policy it may need to be flagged, reported, or in some cases have a response requested via Google, so don't share or promote it further.

💡 Heads up: "General" review requests still sit inside a regulated industry. Licensee policies on this vary a lot — some are relaxed about service-experience reviews, others require every piece of client-facing marketing, including a review request template, to be pre-approved. Check yours before you send anything.

Which review requests to avoid

Asking a client for a review right after a strong portfolio update or good market run
Any wording that mentions returns, performance, or "how happy are you with your investments"
Only sending requests to clients you know are having a good year, and skipping the rest
Asking immediately after delivering specific advice, rather than around a general service milestone
Offering an incentive, discount or gift for leaving a review (against Google's own policy, separate to ASIC concerns)
Responding publicly to a review that references performance or specific advice given

Please note: this is general information, not financial or legal advice — every AFSL and licensee has its own marketing and review policy, and requirements can change, so check your current licensee guidance (or ASIC's own materials) before rolling out a review request process.

Frequently asked questions

Is asking for a Google review the same as asking for a testimonial?

No — and this is the distinction that matters. A testimonial on advice content (endorsing specific advice, a strategy, or investment outcomes) is treated far more cautiously under financial services marketing rules. A general Google review about service experience — communication, responsiveness, how the practice felt to deal with — sits in a different, lower-risk category. The moment a review starts commenting on returns or a specific recommendation, it's drifted into testimonial territory.

Can I offer clients anything for leaving a review?

No. Google's own policy prohibits incentivised reviews regardless of industry, and for a regulated practice it adds an extra layer of risk on top. Ask, don't incentivise.

What if a client mentions their returns in a review anyway?

It happens, and you can't fully control what a client writes. This is the honest limit of this whole approach: you can design a compliant ask, but not a compliant response. Don't request edits, don't amplify it, and check with your licensee about whether it needs to be flagged or reported — policies differ on this.

How often should I be asking for reviews?

Tied to a consistent trigger — end of onboarding, annual review, or a fixed time interval — rather than an ongoing campaign. A practice with 150 clients asking once a year at a natural milestone will build a steady, defensible flow of reviews without it looking (or being) selective.