ABSTRACT
Until now academic financial planning researchers neglected the topic on licensing financial advisers through third-party, often commercially driven product-conflicted, institutional licensees. The obstacle was the deficiencies in financial planning theory to define, model and measure legitimacy. Therefore, the theoretical framework developed to examine the legitimacy of the licensee-authorised representative licensing model is now tested empirically. Using a semi-structured survey questionnaire, data was collected from a probability random sample of 4,000 authorised representatives selected from the ASIC adviser register. Structural equation modelling, a quantitative method, combined with the constant comparative method, a qualitative method, were the main techniques of this mixed methods analysis.
