Seven licensees add new adviser roles
Despite a slow start to the year, at least seven licensees have reported net gains of two new adviser roles and they were followed by 18 licensees who managed to add one adviser role each, according a HFS Consulting analysis.
The analysis, which looks at the weekly changes in the corporate regulator’s Financial Adviser Register (FAR) found the seven were Neo Financial Solutions, Infocus Securities, Australian Unity Personal Financial Services, Crown Wealth Group, Guideway Financial Services, Together Financial Planning, and Wealthmed Financial.
At the same time, a number of lost adviser roles continued to stay equally high, at around 50, with the current single largest financial planning group, the SMSF Advisers Network, leading the table with a net loss of seven advisers this week.
HFS’s director Colin Williams noted that those figures should be looked at very carefully as some of them might be backdated into 2020 since the licensees had 30 days to report their adviser movement.
“Backdating of adviser movement can cause a little friction in the numbers. The SMSF Advisers Network reported seven losses however, but six fell into 2020,” he said.
“Strangely, looking purely at the 2021 dates of the adviser movement, it is in a plus nine position with 55 advisers appointed and 46 roles resigned giving a net gain of nine.”
Charter Financial Planning and Macquarie Equities also recorded this week a loss of three adviser roles each.
Also, the past week saw an addition of one new licensee DDMA while Halifax Investment Services exited the market after losing its only adviser role.
Recommended for you
As the first quarter of 2024 comes to a close, Money Management looks back on the corporate regulator’s bans and AFSL cancellations in the financial advice sector.
Insignia Financial is holding ‘relatively steady’ onto its rank as Australia’s second-largest financial advice licensee after the Godfrey Pembroke exit but Count is hot on its heels.
Liberal senator Slade Brockman has said the government needs to have a “cold hard look” at the level of regulation in the financial advice space and the costs of running a business.
FAAA chief executive, Sarah Abood, has warned changes in the first tranche of the QAR legislation around advice fees documentation could create more work for advisers rather than less.