Advice industry falls after uptick
The number of advisers in the profession has fallen by 24 this week, with this week’s losses mainly driven by Insignia and AMP.
According to Wealth Data, the advice industry now sat at 17,173 advisers, with the two largest groups, Insignia and AMP both seeing a busy week of appointments and resignations.
AMP closed out the week appointing three and losing 13 while AMP had four appointments and 12 resignations.
Count had its first negative week in a while, down a net of four, gaining one adviser and losing five, while TAL (Affinia) also lost a net of four – neither Count or TAL’s losses were appointed elsewhere.
Elsewhere, advisers at CBA and Independent Financial Advisers Australia fell a net of three along with seven licensee owners losing a net of two, including Fortnum, FSSP (Aware Super) and Hood Sweeney.
Looking at growth, a total of 38 licensee owners had net gains of 51 advisers and 41 licensee holders had net losses of -74.
Eight new licensees were registered, adding 14 advisers while seven licensees closed.
And it was a good week for provisional advisers with nine being appointed.
“Outside of the new licensees, Diverger grew by three advisers, the net growth was at GPS who picked up two advisers from Shartru and one Provisional Adviser, while Paragem lost and gained one adviser,” Wealth Data founder, Colin Williams said.
Seven licensee owners had a net growth of two, including Picture Wealth, with one adviser joining from Euroz and the other from Eastwoods Wealth Management. Meanwhile Oreana moved into growth territory, adding two with one adviser from Hillross and another starting as a new Provisional Adviser.
A total of 28 licensees had a growth of net one including Steinhardt Holdings (Infocus), Shartru, Perpetual and HESTA.
Recommended for you
As the first quarter of 2024 comes to a close, Money Management looks back on the corporate regulator’s bans and AFSL cancellations in the financial advice sector.
Insignia Financial is holding ‘relatively steady’ onto its rank as Australia’s second-largest financial advice licensee after the Godfrey Pembroke exit but Count is hot on its heels.
Liberal senator Slade Brockman has said the government needs to have a “cold hard look” at the level of regulation in the financial advice space and the costs of running a business.
FAAA chief executive, Sarah Abood, has warned changes in the first tranche of the QAR legislation around advice fees documentation could create more work for advisers rather than less.