Double authorisations skew adviser numbers
Double authorisations for advisers granted by licensee owners, who own more than one group, has caused significant discrepancies in data covering adviser roles and adviser movements this week.
According to Wealth Data the advice industry this week experienced a decrease of 100 adviser roles and a drop of only 53 actual advisers to 19,743.
It found that the closure of two licensees, Euroz Hartley Securities and Entrust Wealth, by its owner equalled to a liquidation of 47 adviser roles this week even though it had no impact on actual adviser numbers.
Wealth Data analysed adviser movements in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Financial Adviser Register (FAR).
“A few weeks ago, Euroz Hartleys authorised a large number of its advisers to act across more than one licensee that they owned,” Wealth Data’s director, Colin Williams, said.
“This week, however, they closed two licensees – Euroz Hartley Securities and Entrust Wealth Management – which has resulted in a reduction of 47 roles across the Euroz Group, but zero reduction in the number of actual advisers at Euroz.”
In terms of actual advisers, this week saw 81 resignations while 28 appointments were made, giving the net loss of (-53), and excluding provisional advisers, this meant that 54 experienced advisers dropped off the FAR this week.
Source: Wealth Data
Although the FAR’s numbers were not materially affected this week, the announcement from Wealth Today’s ASX-listed parent company, WT Financial Group, regarding the acquisition of Sentry Group, with the projected combined number of advisers for the new entity standing at 275 dominated the market.
“Our figures, which is an analysis of the ASIC’s FAR, shows that the combined group currently has 222 advisers,” Williams said.
He added: “Wealth Today have clarified that the variation is a combination of general advice and wholesale advisers not listed on the ASIC FAR and an expectation of new advisers joining the group between now and July 21”.
Earlier this week, Money Management reported that the group was aiming to have ‘substantially’ more advisers over the next few years than the average mid-tier sized financial planning group, positioning itself as a competitor to other mid-tier listed entities which, on average, had between 250 and 400 advisers.
As far as year-to-date changes at the licensee owner level were concerned, Oreana was still ahead for the growth of advisers at 21, and was followed by Count with 17, and Centrepoint at 12, while both Fortnum and Canaccord gained 10 adviser roles each.
In terms of losses, IOOF Group stood at (-321) and it was followed by AMP Group and Easton which had a net loss of -191 and -75, respectively.
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