Insignia advisers dwindle as micro-AFSLs grow
The number of Insignia advisers has fallen to nearly 1,000, with the advice firm losing 72 advisers to micro-AFSLs over the years.
According to Wealth Data, Insignia lost seven advisers in the week to 04 May, with only one showing as an appointment elsewhere.
The loss brought the firm’s total adviser numbers to just 1,034. The research house had previously reported a drop in Insignia’s market share in the financial planning model market from 14.09 per cent on 1 January, 2022 to 10 per cent as at 23 February, 2023.
Wealth Data attributed the losses to the growing popularity of micro-AFSLs which had between one and four current advisers and AMP, Centrepoint and WT Financial Group had been similarly affected to Insignia.
Last week, it was reported that micro-AFSLs with one to four advisers had grown from 1,070 advisers in 2021 to 1,204 in 2023.
“For micro-AFSLs in our financial planning model, Insignia had lost 72 advisers, followed by WT Financial Group at 55 and AMP at 47. Centrepoint had lost 15 advisers,” noted Colin Williams, Wealth Data founder.
“Please note that the licensee owners may still have a relationship with the ‘lost’ advisers by providing services to the micro-AFSLs.”
Contrastingly, licensee owners with over 100 advisers had decreased by 251 advisers to the new micro-AFSLs.
“Surprisingly, licensee owners with less than 20 advisers have lost 82 advisers to this segment. Overall, there has been a total movement of 403 lost advisers to this segment,” Williams added.
When looking at growth in the previous week, Count Group increased by three as two advisers joined from Affinia, their recently acquired licensee.
Four licensees were up by two, such as Diverger with both advisers joining GPS Wealth, and 17 were up by one including Viridian Group, Shartru, Bombora and Amodio Financial Services.
The industry as a whole saw a net change of 49 advisers in the year-to-date, with 10 advisers lost in the last week.
Both Politis Investment Strategies and WT Financial were down by four advisers, with only one from each firm reappointed elsewhere.
Three licensee owners had decreased by two, which included Centrepoint who had appointed four but lost two. Nearly 20 licensees were down by one, such as Fortnum, Fiducian, Morgans, and AMP Group.
Over 70 advisers were active this week with appointments or resignations, alongside 11 new entrants.
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Jasmine Siljic
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