The movement in adviser numbers this was week was dominated by Commonwealth Bank’s shut down of Commonwealth Financial Planning (CFP) which translated into a departure of 74 advisers.
Additionally, the total net loss for the week was compounded by heavy losses at AMP (-38) and IOOF (-28) with a very little take up of advisers elsewhere, according to Wealth Data.
The firm’s director, Collin Williams, said that AMP experienced the losses across the board and “none at this stage have switched to alternate licensees”.
“IOOF did see some advisers leave and commence work under their own self-licensed arrangements. Also, IOOF losses was compounded by several ‘staff’ (non-client facing) coming off the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Financial Adviser Register,” Williams said
Following this, three licensee owners saw net losses at four, including NTAA, while another two licensee owners lost two advisers, and 22 had seen net losses of one adviser each.
Commenting on the year-to-date data, which saw net losses past 2,000, Williams said that it was noteworthy that the only growing are was the self-licensed sector compared to other financial planning business model peer groups.
Across that sector, there were 113 licensees that commenced and only 45 that exited. By comparison, across the ‘accounting – limited advice’ sector, there were 105 closures and zero new licensees which commenced in the year-to-date.
Oreana remained out in front, counting year-to-date in terms of growth for licensee owners with over 50 advisers, as it saw a net growth of 37 and was followed by Centrepoint at 15.
Also, five licensees shared third place – Advice Evolution, Bombora Advice, Canaccord, Capstone and Count.
The total number of advisers continued to fall and as at 2 December, 2021, it stood at 18,574.
Source: Wealth Data
