AMP Financial Planning (AMP FP), which is currently the second largest financial planning group by adviser numbers, has seen a further decline in adviser numbers which currently stands at 799, according to HFS Consulting’s analysis which looks at data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Financial Adviser Register (FAR).
Earlier this year, Money Management reported that AMP FP lost its status as the single biggest financial planning group in Australia by adviser number at the end of 2020, with the number of advisers having fallen to 815. By comparison, at the start of 2019, the firm had close to 1,400 advisers under its wings.
As far as the biggest licensee owners were concerned, the overall number of advisers operating across key licensees under AMP Group’s umbrella stood at 1,552, and was still ahead of IOOF Group (1,197 advisers).
Source: HFS Consulting
Additionally, since the announcement of the IOOF purchase of MLC in August, 2020, the combined IOOF and MLC groups lost a total 279 adviser roles (IOOF 149 and MLC 130) while AMP Group was down 278 roles.
Taking into account a breakdown by licensee owners and adjusting for a start date as of the beginning of January, it was expected that it would be hard even for the front runners to grow, HFS’ director, Colin Williams said.
“Quietly over the last couple of weeks, Easton Group has become the fourth largest group moving up from fifth as Easton has a total of 644 adviser roles,” he said.
All in all, this week’s analysis of the FAR revealed the number of actual advisers dropped by 35 from to 20,464 in total, with 48 adviser roles being appointed, with only one was a ‘new’ provisional adviser, while 83 adviser roles ceased.
As far as the gains for the week were concerned, 28 licensees made net adviser role gains.
“The advisers are all experienced and it appears they have been re-appointed to the FAR to provide personal advice (TBC),” Williams said.
At the same time, 44 licensees saw net adviser losses for the week and four licensees effectively closed for a total of (-5) adviser roles which were all associated with practices tied to accountants.
