NextGen Financial Group has bid farewell to its remaining three financial advisers following ASIC’s cancellation of its Australian financial services licence (AFSL).
According to Wealth Data, the liquidated financial advice firm now has no advisers left as its final three departed last week. It is not yet known if they have been reappointed elsewhere.
In September, it lost 23 advisers in two weeks – 10 in the week to 31 August and 13 in the week to 7 September – which brought its total adviser number down to 20, having started 2023 with more than double that at 46.
“The group had a chequered past and did have over 100 advisers back in 2019,” said Colin Williams, founder of Wealth Data.
Last Tuesday (27 February), ASIC announced it had formally cancelled the AFSL of NextGen, which was effective from 23 February 2024.
“The AFS licence was cancelled after the Federal Court of Australia ordered that NextGen Financial Group be wound up in insolvency on 17 November 2023,” the corporate regulator stated.
The case first began when the firm was ordered by the Federal Court in July 2023 to pay an SMSF trustee $270,000 over an unpaid Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) determination regarding inappropriate financial advice.
Money Management has recently tracked the torrid period for NextGen and how the case traces back to 2016.
Weekly movements
In the week ending 29 February, Wealth Data reported a net decline of nine advisers with the profession standing at 15,625.
Williams described the weekly loss as “concerning”, given this was the third week in a row for adviser declines. Some 10 advisers departed the week prior while four left the week before that.
Seven new entrants joined and 74 advisers were active with appointments or resignations. Four licensees commenced and three ceased operations.
Some 27 licensee owners had net losses of 32 advisers. Aside from NextGen who led the weekly declines, three licensees were down by two advisers each. This included Count Financial, Capstone Financial Planning and an unnamed licensee dropping to zero advisers.
A long tail of 23 licensee owners lost one adviser each, including Clime Group, Morgans and Tynans.
In terms of adviser growth, 21 licensee owners had net gains of 26 advisers. Five licensees increased by two advisers each, such as Verse Wealth Licensee Services and Focused Financial Advice.
A tail of 16 licensee owners were up by one adviser each. This included WT Financial Group, Steinhardt Holdings (Infocus) and LFG Financial Services.
