How A Costly Financial Mistake Inspired Sa's First Flat-fee Financial Advice Platform

Source: Supplied. Rory Brachner, founder of Doshguide.

Doshguide, South Africa’s first flat-fee financial advisory platform, is turning the traditional commission-based model on its head by offering 100% unbiased personal-finance advice through a monthly subscription whereby no commissions are charged.

It is already growing to meet the needs of the increasing number of South Africans, particularly younger professionals, who are often overlooked by the financial advisory industry due to a lack of sufficient capital for investment.

Rory Brachner, founder of Doshguide, first sought the advice of a recommended financial advisor in 2016 while working at Google as a technology sales executive in Singapore. He thought he was making savvy financial decisions by investing his surplus income, but four years later, he realised he had been paying excessive fees for an investment that didn’t align with his lifestyle.

“Recommending a 30-year retirement annuity as an expat in Singapore for a short-term period was objectively terrible advice,” he admits.

He faced a tough decision: continue investing in an expensive and unsuitable financial product or withdraw and forfeit 25% of his investment. “I withdrew, and it made me realise just how costly investing in the wrong financial product can be.”

Revolutionising financial guidance

Frustrated with himself for not asking the right questions at the time, Brachner recognised a fundamental flaw that traditional models reward advisors for the products they sell, not always for the advice they give. This experience sparked a mission for Brachner after he quit his job and moved back to South Africa. He began considering how he could remove commissions altogether and make advice easy to access.

It was a natural return to entrepreneurship for Brachner, who launched a tutoring agency - connecting the tutors he had trained with students - while still in university. Within a few years, this grew into a thriving marketplace with 250 tutors and four full-time staff. This was his first experience building a scalable, people-focused platform.

He later joined Google and worked with some of the world’s biggest marketplace platforms, including Uber and Airbnb.

“I saw how powerful platforms could be when they connect the right people with the right expertise. These companies have fundamentally changed consumer behaviour by introducing smarter marketplaces that enhance transparency and efficiency, and Doshguide is built on the same idea, just applied to financial well-being.”

Unbiased financial access

Formally launched in 2023, Doshguide is a marketplace platform that connects individuals with vetted, independent, flat-fee Certified Financial Planners™ (CFPs) from its trusted network to provide truly unbiased personal finance guidance.

Doshguide operates exclusively on an affordable, cancel-anytime, monthly flat-fee model. With tailored packages designed for everyone from young professionals starting their careers to individuals with complex financial situations, it strives to make high-quality financial advice more accessible, particularly for the often-overlooked younger market.

“Many South Africans under 45 don’t fit the industry’s traditional model, which depends on clients investing their liquid assets with an advisor. We’re changing that by offering direct access to financial advisors, providing unbiased client-focused advice to empower clients to take control of their current finances and work towards the future they want,” says Brachner.

The flat-fee financial advice model is growing in global markets but remains largely absent in South Africa, where financial advice has long been dominated by commission-driven models tied to product sales and asset-based fees.

He says that their platform has already shown promising traction. “Some of our advisors used to add just five clients a year. Now they’re seeing 25 to 30, thanks to better visibility and better-fit clients. We’ve also introduced a mentorship model to support advisors who want to shift to a flat-fee approach – making conflict-free financial advice more widely available.”

While South Africans may still be getting used to the idea of paying directly for advice – rather than seeing it as “free” through commissions – early adopters are already seeing the benefits. “One of our clients reported making more progress in 10 months with Doshguide than in 12 years with a traditional advisor,” says Brachner.

He concludes, “Accessing expert guidance shouldn’t be complicated, biased, expensive, or limited to the wealthy. Doshguide aims to be integral in changing how South Africans approach their financial future, for the better.”