Advisers seek personal touch from smaller licensees
Large AFSLs with more than 100 advisers are seeing the largest losses in both adviser and AFSL numbers as individuals seek a smaller, personal vision.
The latest Adviser Ratings quarterly Musical Chairs Report explored financial adviser and licensee movements during the three months to 31 March.
Adviser switches during the quarter were primarily driven by departures from diversified licensees and those larger privately owned licensees with more than 100 advisers into smaller ones.
There were 476 advisers who switched during the quarter, with the research house noting switches are usually higher at the start of the year. However, it was fewer than the first quarter of 2024 when 521 advisers switched.
Exploring where these advisers switched from and to, the smallest privately owned licensees with 1–10 advisers had 4,415 advisers working at such firms, up slightly from 4,350 at the end of December. Those with 11–100 advisers grew from 3,350 at the end of 2025 to 4,415 advisers.
On the other hand, those with 100 or more advisers fell from 4,374 advisers to 4,332, a loss of 42 advisers during the quarter. Adviser Ratings stated over half of advisers (58 per cent) who joined a new licensee during the quarter came from a privately owned licensee with 100 or more advisers.
Adviser Ratings suggested the move away from larger licensees was a “clear trend”, and an indication that advisers are seeking a client-centric approach from their licensee to advice delivery and regulatory adaptation.
The number of diversified advisers fell from 654 to 630, while limited licensees fell by a slim margin from 140 to 137.
Looking at the number of individual practices, the number of practices with more than 100 advisers also fell from 2,423 at the end of 2024 to 2,373, while smaller AFSLs increased.
There are currently 1,977 AFSLs with 1–10 advisers, and 1,539 with 11–100 advisers, compared to 1,961 and 1,462 respectively at the end of 2024.
This led the market share of 100+ AFSLs to decline slightly from 39.9 per cent last year to 39 per cent. AFSLs with 1–10 advisers increased from 32.3 per cent to 32.5 per cent, and 11–100 increased from 24.1 per cent to 25.3 per cent.
All of the new AFSLs set up during the quarter sat in the 1–10 adviser segment, several being set up following large corporate actions, such as the acquisition of AMP’s advice firms by Entireti which concluded in December 2024.
This included Partners Wealth Group, a new AFSL set up by former Charter Financial Planning advisers which reported the largest adviser gains during the quarter at 30 advisers, 26 of whom came from Charter Financial Planning.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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