About Professional Planner

Professional Planner

Overview

Professional Planner is an Australian online news publication for financial planners and financial advisers, published in Sydney by specialist business media company Conexus Financial. Published online daily, according to its publisher's media kit, it covers the business of financial advice: investment, industry developments, regulation, professional practice and the people who lead advice firms and licensees.

The publication occupies a defined place in Conexus Financial's portfolio. In its 2026 submission to the News Media Bargaining Code process, Conexus described itself as "an independent, Australian-owned specialist business media company" employing professional journalists in Sydney, and named its principal mastheads as Investment Magazine, Professional Planner and Top1000funds.com. Professional Planner is the masthead focused on the financial advice profession, while Investment Magazine serves the institutional investment and superannuation industry.

The audience is professional rather than retail: financial planners, accountants and private bankers were the stated distribution of the publication in its earlier print form, and its current coverage — of advice licensing, regulator enforcement and professional standards — is written for advisers, licensee executives, researchers and the product and platform providers who work with them.

History

Professional Planner began as part of the formation of Conexus Financial itself. In July 2006, Investment Magazine reported that Investment & Technology magazine — founded by Greg Bright — had merged with Product Alert, founded by Debbie Wilkes, to form Conexus Financial, owned by executive directors Bright, Wilkes and Colin Tate, who became managing director. That report stated that Conexus would also launch "a newsletter and website for planners, Professional Planner, in late September". A June 2007 report placed Conexus at 33 Bligh Street, Sydney, ahead of the launch later that year of Professional Planner.

The launch followed in the spring of 2007. The publication's 2012 media kit records that "Professional Planner (PP) launched in October 2007", and that it began life substantially as a print magazine: the kit states it was distributed to 10,372 financial planners, accountants and private bankers, citing the November 2011 CAB print audit average net distribution. Its founding editor, appointed in late 2007 according to the same media kit, was Simon Hoyle, an experienced financial services journalist who had helped launch Money Management magazine in the late 1980s and had spent ten years at The Australian Financial Review.

The print edition persisted well into the online era: a January 2019 report in Investment Magazine still described Professional Planner as "an online and print publication for financial advisers". No source located for this profile records the date the print edition ceased, so none is asserted here; the publisher's current media kit describes the title simply as "published online daily".

Editorial leadership has changed several times. Kate Cowling was announced as editor of Professional Planner magazine and online on 3 March 2017, with Hoyle moving to editor-at-large; Hoyle departed Conexus in February 2018, writing in a farewell piece that 1 February 2018 was his last day after more than ten years. He returned on 24 August 2022 as editor-in-chief of Professional Planner and Investment Magazine, with Chris Dastoor — who had joined at the start of 2022 as a senior journalist — appointed editor. In April 2023 Aleks Vickovich joined Conexus as editor-in-chief, succeeding to the role across the mastheads.

Programming and Content

Professional Planner's coverage is organised around the beats its media kit labels Investment, Profiles, Industry, Regulation and Opinion. In practice this means daily reporting on the regulation and business of financial advice: Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) enforcement and guidance, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) determinations, professional indemnity insurance, licensing and licensee strategy, practice management, and the long-running reform of advice law, including the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms discussed in Conexus's 2026 bargaining code submission.

Recent coverage observed on the site in October 2026 — including reporting on the professional indemnity insurance market and on World Financial Planning Day — shows the title continuing to publish current news for the advice profession. The publication also profiles industry figures, carries opinion and analysis, and is supported by an editorial advisory board of industry figures listed in its media kit.

The title is integrated with Conexus Financial's events and research business. Events promoted through the publication include the Licensee Summit, an Advice Policy Summit scheduled for 23–24 February 2027 at Old Parliament House in Canberra, and a Researcher Forum scheduled for 1–2 December 2026 in the Blue Mountains. The Conexus Institute, led by executive director Dr David Bell, publishes research drawn on by the mastheads, including the 2026 State of Super report produced with Geoff Warren.

Audience and Reach

Professional Planner addresses Australia's financial advice profession, which the publication's editor has put at approximately 16,000 financial planners in Australia in a statement published in the media kit. Audience figures published by Conexus in its media kit, stated there as at September 2023 and reproduced here as the publisher's own claims, give the publication 54,178 average monthly pageviews, 20,000 email subscribers, 3,764 Twitter followers and 4,929 LinkedIn followers. The same media kit states that the Professional Planner daily newsletter is sent to more than 15,800 subscribers, with a claimed open rate of 48 per cent.

Historically, reach was measured in print terms: the 2012 media kit cited a CAB-audited average net distribution of 10,372 copies to financial planners, accountants and private bankers as at November 2011. These figures are the publisher's own, from the dates given, and no independent current audit figure is asserted in this profile.

Digital Presence

Professional Planner's home is its website, professionalplanner.com.au, which publishes news daily and was carrying current articles dated October 2026 at the time of research. Distribution extends through the daily email newsletter described in the media kit, and through social channels including LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter), for which the media kit published follower counts as at September 2023.

The site also serves as the public face of the title's events programme, publishing agendas and event pages for the Licensee Summit, the Advice Policy Summit and the Researcher Forum, and hosting material from the Conexus Institute. As a digital-native trade title within a specialist publishing group, its online presence is the publication: news, newsletters, events and research promotion are all centred on the website.

Ownership and Organisation

Professional Planner is owned and operated by Conexus Financial, an independent, Australian-owned specialist business media company based in Sydney, in the company's own description. Conexus was formed in 2006 from the merger of Greg Bright's Investment & Technology business and Debbie Wilkes' Product Alert. Its founder and managing director is Colin Tate AM, and its chair is Geoff Lloyd, according to the publication's own site. Fiona Reynolds joined Conexus as chief executive officer in 2021, as reported by Investment Magazine.

The current editorial team, as listed in the publisher's media kit, is Aleks Vickovich as editor-in-chief, Chris Dastoor as editor of Professional Planner, Simon Hoyle as editor at large, and David Stratford as senior content and relationship manager. An October 2026 article on the site also describes Vickovich as Conexus Financial co-chief executive officer. Vickovich joined Conexus in April 2023 as editor-in-chief; Hoyle, the title's founding editor, returned to the group in August 2022 and holds the editor-at-large role.

Contact and Availability

Professional Planner is published online at professionalplanner.com.au and is freely accessible, with a daily email newsletter available to subscribers through the site. Its publisher, Conexus Financial, is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Events associated with the title, including the Licensee Summit, the Advice Policy Summit and the Researcher Forum, are detailed on the website, and advertising and partnership opportunities are set out in the Conexus Financial media kit. News tips and editorial enquiries are directed through the contact channels published on the site.