Despite a relatively uneventful week, the industry has seen a net loss of 29 adviser roles this week even though 30 licensees managed to grow their adviser headcount, according to the data from HFS Consulting.
This week’s figures showed that there were 23 licensees which acquired one new adviser role and another seven financial planning groups increased its adviser numbers with two new roles each.
The groups which welcomed the addition of at least two new adviser roles included Lifespan Financial Planning, Fiducian Financial Services, Alliance Wealth and Advice Evolution, among others.
At the same time, 48 groups posted declining numbers of advisers and in total saw a loss of 66 adviser roles during the week.
AMP Financial Planning traditionally accounted for the biggest loss and saw a departure of five roles and was followed by three groups – Aware Financial Services, Skylight Financial Solutions and Synchron – which each saw a departure of three advisers. On top of that, a further eight groups lost two adviser roles while 36 licensees reported a loss of one adviser role.
According to data from HFS Consulting, there were also two small licensees for which the reported losses in advisers drove the overall number of roles to zero and they had effectively closed.
The firm’s director, Colin Williams, said it was a busy week of reporting given that all in all 78 licensees saw a movement in adviser role numbers.
“This week’s data showed a net loss of 29 adviser roles. Some of the data is still being backdated into 2020 as licensees have 30 days to report adviser movement. Net movement for January 2021 to date is at (-6),” he said.
“The vast majority of the movement are existing advisers moving between licensees. The number of provisional advisers (Professional Year) is increasing, now up to 58 after adding eight in 2021 which is a good start.
“We are also seeing a small number of provisional advisers now becoming advisers in their own right, with three current advisers having a 2021 start date as an actual adviser.”
The HFS Consulting data looks at the weekly adviser movements based on the corporate regulator’s Financial Adviser Register (FAR).
