AMP views addressable market of 10k advisers for North
AMP chief executive, Alexis George, believes the North platform is on a forward trajectory after a period of “stagnation” and is targeting consistent quarterly growth in advisers.
In its half-year results for the six months to 30 June, the financial services firm announced underlying NPAT in the platform division was $58 million driven by higher inflows, new adviser activations, managed portfolio growth, and growth from existing advisers.
There are 4,211 total advisers using the North platform, and AMP said almost half of these have more than $1 million in assets on the platform, including 25 who joined during the first half. However, it estimated an addressable market of over 12,000 advisers who could potentially come onto the platform.
Speaking to Money Management, George said: “We know only about 10,000 advisers are truly active, and that’s where we need to target. We want to grow every quarter.
“If we look back at our history, we haven’t been growing that number, and that’s what caused us to stagnate.”
Out of the 2,213 advisers who have over $1 million in funds under advice, some 1,450 have positive cash flow and 763 are in negative cash flow. This is a gain of 103 advisers in positive cash flow and a decrease of 73 who are in negative cash flow.
George said: “The ones in positive cash flow are growing their $1 million [on North] more and more every day. The ones that are negative, the $1 million on our platform, is shrinking. AMP has been around for 176 years, so some of those in negative cash flow are advisers who may have ceased to use North but still have a balance.
“We are improving the number of advisers with positive flow of more than $1 million, and the number with negative flow are decreasing, and that’s a really good trend.”
On a subsequent results call, she said much of the increase in advisers in positive cash flow came from former AMP advisers who had opted to retain their use of the platform after moving over to Entireti, a change which was enacted in December 2024.
“We’ve been able to maintain from our ex-AMP advisers which is really critical,” George said. “We’ve been able to maintain their connectivity and support while they are outside the group and, in fact, we’ve seen a slight improvement since they’ve been outside the group.
“The second reason is we are bringing new advisers onto the platform, and that’s a combination of several things. We’ve been rebuilding the sales capability that we lost when we spent more time internally thinking and, secondly, we have been able to innovate in the space and brought in lifetime income solutions, accumulation, and pension products.
“It’s a combination of actually innovating, driving service, building that sales capability, and getting that message out there to new advisers.”
George previously described at its quarterly results in July how AMP was placing a renewed focus on hunting new business as well as the capabilities of its business development team.
“The lives of BDMs have changed markedly. It’s not just about selling; you have to be an expert in the offering, and we have spent a lot of time, money, and effort in uplifting the capabilities and tools we have available to them.”
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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