Approximately half of the original adviser cohort that CountPlus acquired from Count Financial have left post-acquisition, either due to retirement or had ceased to provide financial advice, according to a business update from the adviser firm.
It had also established a pipeline of 73 firms and 197 advisers, with four firms currently being onboarded with 11 financial advisers and gross business earnings of $3.9 million.
It said 85% of Count Financial advisers had passed the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) exam, compared to 65% for the industry average.
Over 60% of Count Financial advisers had two or fewer education units to complete before the 1 January, 2026 deadline.
The number of advice documents produced by the firm had increased 59% for the year up to 31 May, 2021. This was with less financial advisers, which meant an 87% increase in advice documents produced per financial adviser.
The firm also noted it raised a provision for remediation related to historical conduct of $252 million, and Count Financial and CountPlus had been granted indemnity from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for $300 million to cover remediation of certain historical conduct within Count Financial. As of 31 May, 2021, the total payment against CBA indemnity was $4.9 million.
Matthew Rowe, CountPlus managing director and chief executive, said that Count Financial had a strategic focus on growing the capability of its adviser community and bringing in new firms that were a positive cultural fit.
“Since October 2019, around half of our original adviser cohort have retired or left, and we have brought in 107 new advisers with a focus on quality and client-centric values," Rowe said.
"Our clean, sustainable operating model is resonating with advice businesses that want to be part of a licensee which is focused on professional services rather than product distribution, which is one of the reasons why we are seeing this productivity enhancement.”
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