Third week of advice industry growth



The number of financial advisers has grown for the third week in a row, adding 22 and bringing the total growth for the financial year to date to 170, according to Wealth Data.
Wealth Data’s Colin Williams said there was normally a spike in the early part of the financial year as growth at the same time last year was at 88 new advisers.
“Calendar year to date is showing a loss of -744, which is significantly better than the same time last year when it was -1,593,” he said.
At the licensee owner level, Natalie Wewer (AFSL Licensee Pty Ltd) was up seven with an array of advisers from different licensees. Meanwhile three licensee owners went up by a net of three including PSK Fin Services. Four owners went up by two including Insignia, Fiducian and ASVW Holdings Including
AMP Group had a difficult week, down eight after appointing three and losing eight. Two of the eight were lost to PSK who was associated with AMP Group. LGIASuper went down to zero as three advisers moved out and two joined Industry Funds Services, as part of the merger of the superfund.
In year-to-date figures, Count Group was up 35 after adding one this week, PSK was up to 64, Centrepoint Group and Castleguard (Lifespan) were up 14, Steinhardt (Infocus) was up 11 followed by Sequoia at 10.
Year-to-date losses were led by Insignia at -136, AMP Group -81 and Craigs Investment at -66.
Recommended for you
A quarter of advisers who commenced on the FAR within the last two years have already switched licensees or practices, adding validity to practice owners’ professional year (PY) concerns.
Integrated wealth and financial services group Rethink has launched a financial planning arm called Rethink Wealth to expand beyond property investing and into holistic wealth management.
While adviser numbers continue to slowly creep back up, the latest Wealth Data analysis reveals they would actually be in the green for the calendar year if it weren’t for so many losses in the limited advice space.
Iress has appointed a chief AI officer to spearhead the fintech’s strategic focus on AI, with chief executive Marcus Price describing how the technology opens the doors to a “new frontier for wealth advice”.