Wealth Data has revealed the top 10 financial advice licensees for adviser growth and losses throughout the year, as the industry rounds out at 15,667 advisers for 2023.
Sequoia Group has come out on top in terms of adviser growth in 2023, with the firm welcoming 33 advisers. Sequoia currently has 349 advisers and sits in ninth place amongst the largest advice licensees.
In November, it announced it is targeting 500 advisers within InterPrac and Sequoia Wealth Management by 2026 through acquisitions of sub-scale licensees.
Meanwhile, Shaw and Partners took the second spot for yearly adviser growth, up by 22 advisers this year. The firm reported strong growth over the past few weeks, according to Wealth Data founder Colin Williams, and it picked up five advisers last week as well as 13 the week prior.
In third place for highest growth in 2023 was Castleguard Trust with 20 advisers. It currently has some 277 advisers.
This was followed by Troy Daniel Mahoney which rose by 16 advisers this year and has 25 advisers in total. Financial Services Group Australia also welcomed 16 advisers in 2023 and has 17 advisers all up.
Zurich Financial Services Australia came in sixth place with a growth of 15 as well as 15 advisers in total. Alexander Euvrard followed with 14 adviser growth and has 36 advisers.
ASVW Holdings, which has 44 advisers, came in next with a yearly rise of 13. Spark Partnership Group welcomed 11 advisers and has a total of 76, while LFG Financial Services also rose by 11 and ended the year with 35 advisers.
“The licensee owners with most gains are quite modest compared to the losses at a licence owner level. Much of this has been driven by advisers leaving larger licensees and commencing their own. A total of 112 new licensees have commenced YTD,” Williams noted.
Yearly declines
The advice profession shrunk by 131 advisers throughout 2023. However, this result was significantly better compared to the same period last year which saw losses 10 times greater of 1,335.
Looking at specific licensees, Insignia Group led the pack in terms of adviser losses this year. The firm bid farewell to 135 advisers and now has 783 in total.
Last week, it was reported that AMP leapfrogged Insignia in taking over the position as Australia’s largest licensee with 871 advisers.
WT Financial Group was second in place for yearly losses with declines of 58 and has 561 advisers in total – meaning the firm is the third largest licensee after Insignia. Meanwhile, AMP lost 50 advisers throughout the year.
This was followed by The Financial Link Group which lost 43 advisers and now has just three advisers in total.
Count Limited came in fifth place with losses of 27 and has 371 advisers now, sitting in eighth place amongst the largest licensees.
