The number of financial advisers has stabilised above the 15,600 mark as 2023 comes to an end, while Wealth Data confirms AMP now leads as the largest licensee.
The financial advice industry saw a net change of zero this week to 14 December for the first time in several weeks.
According to the research house, the current number of advisers stands at 15,670.
Wealth Data also confirmed that AMP Group is once again the largest advice licensee in Australia with 871 advisers.
“When we started the year, few would have predicted that AMP would return to the number one position, as measured by the number of advisers. With Insignia selling their Millennium3 (M3) business to WT Financial Group, AMP have leapfrogged Insignia to the top position. WT Financial moved into third spot ahead of Centrepoint,” explained Colin Williams, Wealth Data founder.
It was announced last week (8 December) that Insignia’s sale of M3 to WT Financial reached completion, seeing M3’s advice network of over 140 wealth and personal risk insurance advisers transfer from Insignia’s licensee to WT Financial’s one.
Insignia now has 785 advisers, while WT Financial has 561 advisers.
Williams also reflected on the significant number of advisers both AMP and Insignia, Australia’s two largest licensees, have lost over recent years.
“To put this into context, when Insignia (then IOOF) announced that they entered into an agreement with MLC on 31 August 2020, they indicated in their ASX announcement that they would be the number one advice business by number of advisers at 1,884,” he remarked.
Looking at the weekly adviser movements, 73 advisers were busy with appointments or resignations. Five new entrants joined the profession, while two licensees commenced and one ceased.
Some 24 licensee owners had net gains of 32 advisers in the week ending 14 December. Shaw and Partners topped the growth numbers for the second week in a row, Williams observed, by picking up another five advisers.
A new licensee began operations with three advisers, and Count Group was up by net two.
True Wealth Financial Group saw two advisers come back after a break, and a tail of 20 licensees increased by net one each including Spark Partnership Group, Findex and Centrepoint.
Examining the losses for the week, 22 licensee owners had net declines of 33 advisers. Australian Investment and Insurance Group were down by four advisers, while Insignia also lost four.
Euroz Hartleys Group declined by three advisers, and Clime Group plus two other licensees were down by two each.
Some 16 licensees lost one adviser each, including Diverger, Minchin Moore and Fiducian.
