Super merger helps ease adviser losses

The number of financial advisers has fallen by net of five this week, in stark contrast to the sharp falls in the industry seen over the last three weeks, according to Wealth Data.

This week was a busier week in terms of adviser movements though, dominated in part by movements across the superannuation sector following the merger of Hostplus and Statewide Super.

Industry Super Holdings, under the IFS Licensee, saw growth of 22, most notably due to 15 advisers switching from Statewide and Link across to Industry Fund Services (IFS). IFS would be the main provider of advisers to the newly-merged entity between Hostplus and Statewide.

“IFS also added a further seven advisers from different AFSLs, so a busy time for the IFS team,” Wealth Data founder Colin Williams said.

VIVID Financial Planning put on three advisers with two coming across from Lifespan. Meanwhile, six licensee owners grew by a net of two advisers including Fortnum , Findex and Oracle. One new licensee also commenced with two advisers.

A total of 26 licensee owners had net growth of one each including Shartru, Sambe Investments, Perpetual and one new licensee.

Statewide Super led losses due to the merger, with Count down net negative four and Castleguard (Lifespan) down negative three. Despite the losses, both licensee owners were in positive territory year to date.

FSSP (Aware Super), Insignia and Steinhardt Holdings (Infocus) were also down by three with a long tail of 32 licensee owners down by one, including Diverger, Bombora and Picture Wealth.