Insignia has lost 92 advisers since the start of the calendar year, according to Wealth Data.
The firm stood as the leader in terms of losses followed by WT Financial Group at 37 and AMP and Steinhardt Holdings with a loss of 23 each.
Wealth Data noted that some of the losses are to self-licensed models where they may still be receiving services from their old licensee.
The total movement for this calendar YTD saw a net loss of 85 advisers. However, Wealth Data founder Colin Williams observed that the figure could be a positive sign for the industry.
“This may seem a bit disappointing, given a positive start earlier in the year, but at the same stage last year it was almost 10 times worse at -828,” he said.
In terms of gains over the calendar year, Sequoia gained 17 advisers, Zurich Financial gained 15 and three licensee owners gained 10 each.
In the past week to 3 August, Insignia was down by 12 advisers, following an appointment of two and a loss of 14.
Last month, Insignia revealed the development of a new partnership ownership model under the working name of Advice Services Co (ASC), following plans to reset its financial advice operation model.
“ASC represents the ambition to create Australia’s largest adviser-owned licensee group, positioning it to capitalise on the dynamic self-employed advice market with the support of Insignia Financial,” the ASX statement said.
According to Adviser Ratings, this co-equity model could also be an attractive path for the AMP Group. An estimated one in three AMP and Insignia practices could benefit from a partnership model with profit margins over 10 per cent and revenue over $1 million.
Also over the week, Lonsdale saw a loss of five and now sits at zero advisers after ceasing operations on 30 June this year. In comparison, the group had 198 advisers at the beginning of 2020.
Additionally, Millennium3 (M3) also saw a decrease of five advisers.
“M3 will be an interesting licensee to watch, given Insignia indicating that it could be up for sale,” noted Colin Williams, founder of Wealth Data.
Overall, there was zero net change in adviser numbers, which still remains at 15,715.
Four new licensees entered the scene during the week while three ceased, alongside eight new entrants joining the industry.
Some 28 licensee owners saw net gains of 42 advisers, which included Shaw and Partners being up by four, with two advisers each switching from Ord Minnett and Fortrend Securities.
Four licensee owners had a net increase of three each, including two new licensees. IA Advice welcomed its three advisers from Grange Securities, while Capital Partners had two from Synchron, part of WT Financial Group, as well as one new entrant.
Three licensees saw gains of two each, which included another new licensee. Two advisers joined SkyBridge from Lonsdale, and Australian Unity saw one from Findex alongside a new entrant.
In addition, 20 licensee owners were up by one adviser each, such as Steinhardt Holdings (Infocus), Macquarie Group, Capstone and the Australian Retirement Group.
When looking at losses for the week, 25 licensees had net decreases of 43 advisers.
Two licensee owners, Fitzpatricks and Andrew Baxter (Grange Securities), lost three advisers. Notably, Fitzpatricks saw a loss of 15 advisers from 86 to 71 this calendar YTD, or 17.44 per cent. This was the highest percentage loss of licensee owners with 50 or more advisers.
Three licensees were down by two each, which included AAN Wealth.
Finally, 19 licensee owners lost one adviser each, such as AMP Group, Clime Group, Fortnum and WT Financial.
Fairly clear that Insignia would love to return to the “tied agent” model, so anyone who doesn’t want to be in partnership with such a Licensee, will depart. The joint ownership of practices will with doubt in my mind all about increasing FUM. Saw enough of that when a Practice Principal.
Wow…talk about adopting a ‘glass half full attitude’ Colin Williams…“This may seem a bit disappointing, given a positive start earlier in the year, but at the same stage last year it was almost 10 times worse at -828,”
So if the last guy leaves, being ONE, is that also a positive sign that ONLY ONE left?
What stinks most about the state the industry is in is that the culprits of it’s demise have just ridden off into the sunset without any retribution whatsoever. Frydenberg and that filth O’Dwyer are both in jobs now (financial services not surprisingly) earning huge incomes. For fear of sounding like a child – this just isn’t fair in any way.
By designing legislation and compliance guidelines that were meant to weed out the <5% of 'dodgy' advisers, we've erased 55% of the industry. I don't care where you drink - that fails to pass any pub test! This has been nothing but a totally avoidable disaster!