AMP confirms revamp as advisers numbers continue to drop

The latest Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Financial Adviser Register (FAR) has highlighted further losses of advisers, with current adviser roles on the FAR dropping to below 21,500, according to HFS Consulting. 

At the same time, the numbers of planners working at the biggest groups reached its lowest levels in five years, falling to around 13,200 from 14,500 last year, according to Money Management’s TOP Financial Planning Groups Ranking. Additionally, in 2018 the largest financial groups had jointly around 16,000 planners. 

AMP, which saw altogether a combined loss of another 500 advisers spread among its four planning groups (AMP FP, Charter Financial Planning, Hillross Financial Services and ipac securities) counting year on year, said it was revamping its adviser network.  

“AMP continues to work on completing the reshape of its adviser network, which is reducing the overall number of practices, as we focus on moving forward with a core group of practices which are sustainable in the long term,” an AMP spokesperson said in a statement to Money Management. 

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As far as the remaining banking groups were concerned, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which last year declared it would close Financial Wisdom by June 2020 after it had sold Count Financial to CountPlus, saw a sharp decline in number of planners to around 250, which represented an almost 50% drop compared to a year before. 

Similarly, ANZ currently has only one group, ANZ Financial Planning had around 180 advisers on its book compared with almost 240 advisers two years ago. 

The full ranking of the Money Management’s TOP Financial Planning Groups will be published online next Tuesday and in the print edition published on 8 October.