AMP holds onto Top 100 spot for third year
By Jason Spits
AMP Financial Planning has taken out the top placing in the annualMoney ManagementTop 100 Dealer’s Survey for the third year in a row, with 1,548 planners recorded on its books.
That number is 82 planners down on last year’s numbers but was still sufficient for the financial services giant to keep the top spot ahead of its bank-based rivals.
Second ranked dealer group for the past two years, Count Wealth Accountants, has dropped down one place into third, despite boosting its numbers by 57 planners to 1,006.
The reason for Count’s short slide was due to Professional Investment Services (PIS) storming up the rankings with the addition of 701 planners since the last survey was taken (see story below).
The first bank to gain a ranking in the table was Westpac, with its combined financial planning and advice division boasting 703 planners, well up on last year’s number of 554.
The rest of the top 10 places are rounded out with dealer groups under AXA, the National Australia Bank or the Commonwealth Bank structures, confirming the push by the banks into the provision of financial advice.
This was most evident with Commonwealth Investment Consultants, vaulting into the top 10 with the addition of 84 planners.
Despite the change of rankings at the top of the table, only two dealers in the top 20 have entered from outside that number, with the remaining 18 holding a top 20 spot for the third year running.
The most consistent performers have once again been Count, Westpac and AXA, with their dealer groups hovering in the positions between second and fifth since the inaugural Top 100 in 1999.
At the other end of the spectrum there were a number of major moves, resulting in the relative absence of most of the consolidators in the rankings, with Stockford the only name of note.
Also conspicuous by their absence were the high profile groups Chapel Road, Saxby Bridge and Harts Australasia. While each have had a placing in the survey for 1999 and 2000, this is the first year that they have not been included in the rankings, despite the minimum number of planners needed for inclusion in the rankings being set at 12.
Full Top 100 Report, page 8.
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