Industry drops below 16,000 for first time

The industry has reported one of its largest-ever weekly falls as the number of advisers falls by almost 300.

According to Wealth Data, the number of advisers saw a net change of 295 advisers in the week to 06 October which brought the total number of advisers on the Financial Advisers Register (FAR) to less than 16,000.

This was the first time that industry had fallen below 16,000.

The total number of departing advisers was 326 advisers from 114 licensee owners but there were net gains of 31 advisers from 24 licensee owners.

While the number was significantly larger than figures for the past two weeks, which reported net changes of 149 and seven advisers respectively, it was not the largest-ever.

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In the week to 2 July, 2021, following the end of the 2020/21 financial year, there was a loss of over 500 advisers.

Wealth Data founder, Colin Williams, said: “While not the largest, the losses are still pretty big. I expect we will see more losses next week and after that then they should stabilise”.

This was because the public holidays and school holidays had likely meant some smaller firms were behind on their updates, he suggested, as most of the losses so far had been reported by large groups such as AMP.

“I’m not convinced the smaller groups know what they are doing regarding removing advisers from the FAR,” Williams said. “Particularly the accountancy firms where advice is not their focus.”

Advisers in the Accounting – Limited Advice sector, which offered mostly self-managed superannuation fund services, had seen the largest losses over the last 12 months with losses of 57%.