Retail vs Wholesale Investors

A side-by-side reading of the statutory safety net for retail clients against the self-reliance presumed of wholesale clients — across protection, disclosure, dispute resolution, market access and the burden of due diligence.

* General information only — not legal, financial or tax advice; current as at 2026. Classification is assessed per product and per service. Please speak with us — and, where needed, a licensed adviser — before acting.

The default rule (s 761G): every investor is a retail client unless an exemption affirmatively applies. Wholesale status is not a choice — it must be established against one of the tests below. The trade is deliberate: lighter protection in exchange for access to private markets and products withheld from the retail public.

Protection & obligation matrix

Sort

View

Dimension

Retail client protected

Wholesale client self-reliant

Reading the gap bar: the indicator measures how far the two regimes diverge on each dimension — wide divergence means a protection that exists for retail clients falls away almost entirely for wholesale clients. Statutory references are indicative section pointers, not a substitute for the provisions themselves.

Risk profile

Retail Safety net

Presumed to have limited capacity to absorb loss or interrogate complex products. The regime is paternalistic by design — the burden of suitability, disclosure and conduct sits with the provider.

Self-reliance expectedLow

Statutory protectionMaximal

No capital or wealth threshold — the universal default category
Confined largely to disclosed, regulated public-market products
Full external redress and last-resort compensation

Wholesale Caveat emptor

Presumed financially sophisticated or able to bear loss. Gains entry to private markets and complex products, but carries the due-diligence burden and forgoes the statutory safety net.

Self-reliance expectedHigh

Statutory protectionMinimal

Must satisfy a capital, income, status or experience test
Access to unregistered schemes, private credit & placements
Remedies via the courts and general law only

Capital & eligibility tests

Becoming wholesale

Satisfy any one test (s 761G & s 761GA). Figures are unchanged since 2001 — the Parliamentary Joint Committee declined to raise them in its February 2025 report.

Product values 761G(7)(a)

≥ $500,000

Price or value of the financial product. Excludes superannuation and risk-insurance products.

Individual wealths 761G(7)(c)

$2.5M net assets or $250k income

Net assets of at least $2.5M, or gross income of at least $250,000 in each of the last two financial years.

Professional investors 9 / s 761G(7)(d)

Controls ≥ $10M

AFSL holders, APRA-regulated bodies, listed entities, and persons controlling $10M or more in assets.

Large businesss 761G(7)(b)

≥ 20 / 100 staff

Not a small business: 20+ employees, or 100+ where the business includes manufacturing goods.

Sophisticated investors 761GA

Experience test

Licensee satisfied on reasonable grounds the client has the experience to assess the product; written statement required.

Accountant's certificate The individual-wealth test is evidenced by a certificate from a qualified accountant. It is valid for two years and must be current when the client is classified. Assets/income of a controlled company or trust may be counted.

General law still applies

Even without Chapter 7 retail protections, wholesale clients retain general-law remedies — fiduciary duties, contract, and the misleading-or-deceptive-conduct prohibition under ASIC Act s 12DA. Self-reliance is not the absence of all recourse.