Mid-tier advice groups rise as adviser numbers fall
Money Management’s 2019 TOP Financial Planning Groups survey has confirmed a 10% year-on-year drop in a total number of planners employed by top groups, bringing the figure down to 14,489 – its lowest level in five years.
This means the 2019 number dropped below even the 2017 level when there were 14,701 of planners working jointly for the TOP 100 groups.
Where growth occurred it was within upper mid-tier financial planning groups and those with links to superannuation funds.
Money Management’s data for 2016, 2015 and 2014 also showed across these years planner numbers remained steady above 15,000.
Furthermore, the largest financial planning group, AMP Financial Planning which once again earned the top spot and managed to defend its title as the single-biggest financial planning group across the industry, also posted an 11.4% year-on-year drop in net planner numbers.
The remaining groups, which still operated under AMP’s umbrella continued to trim their ranks, with Charter Financial Planning, Hillross Financial Services and Ipac securities reporting a joint drop of 5.5%, counting year-on-year.
However, while these larger institutionally-linked licensees trimmed their numbers, the SMSF Advisers Network was seen to grow, as did superannuation fund-related, StatePlus, alongside InFocus, Affinia and Findex.
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