For a profession that is so heavily regulated, financial advice is uncharacteristically loose when it comes to job titles. With a few exceptions, there are currently, as of 2026, no firm rules or regulations governing this. However, those who work in the field have established a kind of consensus. If you’re looking for someone to help you plan your finances, here’s what you need to know.
What is financial advice?
Before getting into the different job titles, it’s worth taking a moment to understand financial advice itself.
Advice in general conversation means to provide someone with guidance or an opinion. As in, “I’m thinking of buying my first investment property, mah bru. Do you have any advice for me?”
In financial services, the term “advice” pertains to products, e.g. insurance policies or investment vehicles. This is one of the terms that is regulated – and very strictly so, which is why you will often hear finance professionals provide a disclaimer in interviews or content along the lines of, “this does not constitute financial advice”. Speaking of which, this article does not constitute financial advice.
Understanding that is your first step towards making sense of financial jargon.
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Finance job titles explained
When you’re looking for someone to help you with your finances, there are various terms you might encounter in your search results. Here’s a brief explanation of what each of them means.
Broker
This can roughly be translated as “product salesperson”. A broker acts as an intermediary between the client (you) and a product provider, such as an insurance company. Brokers can be tied to a specific company or they can be independent.
When you need a broker: A broker is useful if you just want a certain product (e.g. car insurance or medical aid). Brokers often have deep knowledge of the products and can help you figure out which one will be best for your needs and budget. They usually earn commission on products sold and may have sales targets to meet.
Financial adviser a.k.a. financial advisor
Someone qualified to give financial advice. They have completed the necessary academic qualifications and passed a regulatory exam. They can look at your financial situation and advise what kinds of products you need, and which would be best for you. Like a broker, a financial adviser may be tied to a specific company or independent. Financial advisers may work as brokers. Their job title could be broker or adviser.
The spelling doesn’t affect the role. Some people prefer to use “advisor” (mostly Americans). In South Africa, it has become the norm to use “adviser” to indicate that you’re specifically talking about someone who gives financial advice (see above) as opposed to someone giving advice in the everyday sense. This is convention, not legislation.
Financial advisers usually earn commission on your products but may charge a project fee, retainer or hourly fee.
When you need a financial adviser: A financial adviser can help you if you don’t know what product you need but you know what you need it to do. For example, “I want to save for retirement”: “I want to save for my child’s education”; “I want to make sure my family will be taken care of should I pass away”. They also have the knowledge to help you manage your cashflow and make big financial decisions.
Read more: SA financial planners explain how to decode your company benefits statement
Financial planner
Technically, there is no difference between a financial adviser and a financial planner. However, if a financial adviser chooses to call themselves a financial planner, like we do at Freedom Financial Planning, they may offer more holistic planning that goes beyond products.
When you need a financial planner: Consider a financial planner when you want someone to help you develop a strategy for your finances as a whole. This includes products the adviser doesn’t administer (such as your employee benefits), assets that aren’t regulated (such as your property investment portfolio), and estate planning (such as helping you get a valid will in place).
Certified Financial Planner®
A CFP® is a financial planning professional registered with the Financial Planning Institute of South Africa. It is the highest professional certification a financial adviser can achieve but you don’t need to be a CFP® in order to practise as a financial adviser. To become a CFP® in South Africa, you must have completed a Post Grad (PGDip) in Financial Planning and passed the board exams. A CFP® may work as a broker under the title of broker, financial adviser or financial planner.
When you need a CFP®: There’s nothing a CFP® is qualified to do that another financial adviser is not qualified to do. However, when you work with a CFP® you know that you are working with someone who has proven their technical competence at the highest level.
Meet the Freedom Financial Planning advice team
Lifestyle financial planner
This isn’t an official term in financial advice. However, some financial planners (like us at Freedom Financial Planning) have adopted the term to indicate that we’re equally interested in helping you live a full life now and helping you protect your future. Financial advice traditionally focuses more on the latter.
When you need a lifestyle financial planner: If you want help managing your finances in such a way that you can live the life you want now while saving for retirement, as opposed to depriving yourself now and putting all your money away for the future.
Tied vs Independent
A tied financial adviser or broker can only recommend products from one product provider. That’s when you hear people talk about “my <insert insurance company name> guy”. An independent adviser or broker is not affiliated with any particular provider. They can recommend products from different product providers and get comparative quotes.
When you need a tied adviser: If you have a particular company you want to work with. Maybe you already have your medical aid with a certain company and you want your insurance with them too. Maybe your whole family has always been with that company. Maybe you like their ads. In that case, a tied adviser or broker can help you understand that company’s products and find the best one for you.
When you need an independent adviser: If you don’t have a product provider preference but you want the best suited, most cost-effective products for your needs, an independent adviser or broker will help you find the most favourable option.
Check out Freedom Financial Planning’s fees and how we charge
Flat fee
Traditionally, financial intermediaries (whether they call themselves advisers, planners or brokers) have earned a living through commissions on products. This is a small percentage that’s built into the fees you pay the product provider. The product provider in turn pays the adviser. The percentage itself may be small (sometimes less than 1%) but translated into rands, it can be a substantial amount if you have a large investment portfolio. A few financial planners, including Freedom Financial Planning, offer a flat fee instead. This may be an hourly rate, a project fee or a retainer, as in the case of Freedom Financial Planning.
When you need a flat-fee financial planner: If you want to know exactly how much you’re paying your adviser in rands; you want to pay the amount yourself rather than having the product provider pay them on your behalf; or you want to know that you’re paying a set amount that’s not fluctuating with the value of your investments.
As you can see, financial advice jargon can be confusing. But understanding how the different terms are used will help you figure out what kind of intermediary you want to work with.
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