This week saw another significant departure of 112 advisers, driving the overall numbers down to 19,631, despite the removal of 35 dual licensed advisers by Macquarie Group, according to data from Wealth Data which analyses the weekly changes in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC’s) Financial Advisers Register (FAR).
The firm’s director, Colin Williams, explained that Macquarie removed 35 dual licensed advisers from one of its licensees, Macquarie Equities, however they all remained licensed at Macquarie Bank.
Following this, there was a total of 48 adviser appointments, which included two provisional advisers, while 46 advisers switched licensees. At the same time, 196 roles eased giving the net change of -148, according to data.
Money Management reported last week how dual authorisations led to discrepancies in data and this week saw the same scenario under which the number of lost adviser roles (148) was significantly higher than number of actual advisers’ losses.
On top of that, the fast-approaching end of financial year (EOFY) resulted in a change of small licensees numbers.
Looking at the past 12 months, there were 162 new licensees with less than 20 advisers, which commenced operations after 1 July, 2020, while a total of 169 equivalent license closed.
More interestingly, of those which were classed as new, 125 were in the peer group of financial planning but none of the new ones were classed as accounting – limited advice.
By comparison, of those that ceased the operations, 43 were classed in the peer group of financial planning and 89 classed as accounting – limited advice.
The highest losses in adviser roles this week were recorded traditionally by AMP Group and IOOF which were down by 13 and 12, respectively, after excluding Macquarie.
Following this, New Zealand-based Craigs Investment Partners lost eight advisers roles, why Easton Group and Synchron both lost six each.
As far as the gains for the week were concerned, 23 licensee owners made collectively net gains of 30 adviser roles, with Centrepoint with four new roles leading the way.
Four owners did make gains of two each, including Viridian, while 18 owners gained one role each.
Source: Wealth Data
