This week saw a significant drop in adviser role numbers as 100 advisers exit the industry, driving the overall number of advisers to 19,953, according to HFS Consulting’s weekly analysis of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Financial Adviser Register (FAR).
HFS Consulting’s director, Colin Williams, said that the drop this week were dominated by SMSF Advisers Network, which offers limited advice support services, was down 48 roles. The company fell within the broader trend which saw licensees with limited advice services falling away.
According to Williams, this trend would continue to grow in the coming months.
Williams also stressed the main reason behind losses associated with limited advice were that advisers were opting not to proceed with the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) requirements and the amount of exam passes at groups with restricted licensees was very low.
SMSF Adviser Network was followed this week by MLC Group, Easton, and Rice Warner which were all down by 18, 10 and seven adviser roles, respectively.
Source: HFS Consulting
Williams said what could be an interesting number to follow was the combined number of MLC Group and IOOF advisers which are current sitting at 1,534 with 1,111 at IOOF and 423 at MLC.
“This is larger than AMP Group at 1,443. However, AMP Group has slowed its losses and ‘may’ retain their number one position post IOOF /MLC becoming a combined business with the current variance between the conglomerates being 91 while at the start of the year it was 224,” Williams said.
“As for growth at the licensee owner level, Centrepoint Group have leapfrogged Count Financial to join Oreana with a net gain of 15 adviser roles each. And Count slipped to third with a gain of 14 closely followed by Fortnum with 12.”
