For the first time consumers who complain about their financial planner have outnumbered those who complain about their insurer.
New statistics from the Financial Industry Complaints Service (FICS) shows it received 587 complaints against financial planners last year compared to 451 against life insurers.
The collapse of Norman Carey's property empire Westpoint accounted for the spike, as planners exposed to the company's issue of promissory notes were blamed for giving bad investment advice.
Complaints against planners accounted for close to half (43 per cent) of all new complaints to the scheme, an increase of 18 per cent on the previous year according to the company's annual report.
Life insurance complaints fell by 12 per cent.
Almost two thirds (61 per cent) of complaints were from consumers locked in a battle against their insurer who had denied a claim.
The external disputes resolution scheme heard 157 complaints against managed investment houses and 100 against stockbrokers in 2006.
Total complaints to the scheme rose by 15.2 per cent.
The company hit out at professional indemnity (PI) insurers for delaying Westpoint investor claims.
"Professional indemnity insurers have been slow to respond to claims in relation to Westpoint-related complaints," FICS chief executive Alison Maynard said.
"The wordings of policies reveal many conditions and exclusions in the policies as well as wordings that are open to more than one interpretation," she said.
"In addition, in many cases policy limits have proved to be inadequate to respond to the number of claims."
Maynard said Federal Government plans to make PI insurance compulsory will fail to protect consumers because it is too easy for license holders facing a large number of claims to put their business into administration and walk away from liabilities.
Three dealer groups with exposure to Westpoint - Money Matters, Deakin Financial Services and Brighton Hall - have shut down and ASIC has sought court orders to wind up another, Centro Financial Synergy Group.
