Negative Reviews for Financial Planners: What You Can (and Can't) Say Back
Every financial planner eventually gets the review that makes their stomach drop — often not because it's devastating, but because it's wrong, and the natural instinct is to correct it publicly. A real estate agent can argue about a sale price. A restaurant can explain a bad night. A financial planner generally can't do either, because the moment you say "actually, we advised against that strategy" or "the client ignored our recommendation," you've disclosed that person's status as a client and something about their financial affairs — both of which you're bound not to do, regardless of how unfair the review feels 💖. This is the one industry where the worst response to a bad review often looks, to an outsider, exactly like doing nothing.
What most financial planners get wrong
The most damaging mistake is responding with specifics to prove a point. A planner stung by an unfair review will sometimes reply with something like "we advised you against this investment three times" — which feels justified in the moment but is a privacy breach and a potential AFCA complaint waiting to happen, on top of the original review.
The second mistake is silence that reads as guilt. Practices worried about saying the wrong thing sometimes say nothing at all, for weeks. A one-star review with no response sitting on Google for a month looks worse to a prospective client than one with a calm, professional reply attached the same week — even if that reply says very little.
The third mistake is treating every negative review as a PR problem instead of first checking whether it's a genuine complaint that needs to go through your formal internal dispute resolution process. If a review describes an actual grievance about advice given, it may need to be logged and handled as a complaint under your AFSL's IDR obligations — not just replied to and forgotten.
Use this structure for any negative review, and adjust tone only — never the content rules.
1. Acknowledge, without confirming. "Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback." Never confirm the reviewer is or was a client — even implicitly.
2. Express genuine concern. "We're sorry to hear you've had a frustrating experience." This isn't an admission of fault, it's basic acknowledgement.
3. Move it offline, immediately. "We'd welcome the chance to discuss this directly — please contact our practice manager on [phone/email]." This is the entire point of the reply: get the conversation out of public view.
4. Stop. No specifics, no dates, no dollar figures, no "we recommended," no "you were told." If it isn't in steps 1–3, it doesn't belong in the reply.
Template: "Thank you for sharing this feedback. We're sorry to hear your experience didn't meet expectations, and we take all client concerns seriously. We'd welcome the opportunity to discuss this further directly — please reach out to us on [phone] or [email] at your convenience."
How to handle it, step by step
1. Don't reply in the first hour. Read it twice, check who wrote it, and forward it to whoever owns compliance or IDR at the practice before anyone responds publicly.
2. Decide: feedback or formal complaint? If it describes an actual grievance about advice, treat it as a complaint under your IDR process regardless of what happens with the online review.
3. Post the generic reply, within 24–48 hours. Speed matters more than content here — a fast, calm, content-free reply reads as professionalism.
4. Follow up privately using the contact details you offered, and document that you did.
5. Never edit or delete your reply later to add detail, even if the complaint resolves in your favour. The public record should stay exactly as neutral as it started.
Mistakes to avoid
- Confirming, denying, or hinting at whether the reviewer is a current or former client
- Referencing any specific advice, fee, figure, or document in a public reply, even to correct the record
- Treating a genuine complaint as "just a review" and skipping your formal IDR process
- Letting a review sit unanswered for weeks while you decide what to do
- Arguing with the reviewer in the comments — one calm reply, then take it offline
Frequently asked questions
Can we ask a happy client to leave a review to balance out a bad one?
You can encourage satisfied clients to share feedback as an ongoing practice, but never in direct response to a specific negative review — that can look like manipulation to both the platform and a regulator, and most review platforms' terms prohibit incentivised or reactive review requests.
What if the review is clearly fake or from a non-client?
Report it to the platform with evidence it isn't a genuine customer review. This can take time and doesn't always succeed, so don't rely on removal as your only strategy — post the generic reply regardless while the report is pending.
Should the adviser named in the review respond personally?
It depends on your practice's size and culture — a practice manager or compliance-designated person responding is often safer than the named adviser, since it keeps the reply visibly procedural rather than personal or defensive.
Do we have to report a bad review to our licensee?
If it describes a genuine complaint about advice, generally yes — most AFSLs require complaints to be logged and handled through IDR regardless of the channel they arrive through, including public reviews.
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