Diverger announces acquisition

In a statement on Thursday, Diverger announced the acquisition of AFSL Compliance, a licensee support business, in line with its strategy to grow its services.

Established in 2010, AFSL Compliance supports advice firms that either hold their own Australian Financial Services licence or are looking to obtain their own.

“AFSL Compliance has built a successful, repeatable and valued service for self-licensed firms, and we are pleased to be providing support to their clients,” said Nathan Jacobsen, managing director at Diverger.

“Advice firms are growing strongly and looking for more services to help them scale, whilst maintaining choice around how they operate.”

According to a recent Adviser Ratings’ report, the self-licensed advice market of privately owned firms made up of one to 10 advisers is now the largest and fastest-growing segment in the industry, accounting for 25 per cent of advice firms in June 2022.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Diverger and to have the opportunity to service more advice firms,” said Stewart Chandler, founder and owner of AFSL Compliance.

Last month, Diverger launched a new CPD and technical support platform for advisers via its subsidiary Knowledge Shop — the Knowledge Shop Adviser Membership service — which in essence is a technical help desk that covers compliance, ethics, tax and superannuation.

The platform was previously available only to accountants. However, Diverger said that with the proliferation of small independent advice practices across the advice industry, significant demand had been created for a one-stop-shop education and technical support service provider.