New entrants holding off adviser decline

According to Wealth Data, there was a net loss of six advisers for the week to 16 February, with the total number of advisers now sitting at 15,868.

Wealth Data founder Colin Williams said: “A relatively quiet week with 69 advisers joining/leaving licensees. While the net loss was six for the week, the number of the calendar year only dropped by two to +57 as some resignations were backdated into 2022”.

Mr Williams added that since the halfway point of 2022, hiring new entrants has become a core growth opportunity for many licensees.

“The number of new entrants to financial advice, initially as provisional advisers, was very sluggish when first introduced in [January] 2019,” he said.

“However, we saw a dramatic improvement in the second half of 2022, which continues in 2023.”

Wealth Data reported that since 1 July 2022, there have been 233 new entrants on the Financial Advisers Register (FAR), and over the same period, there was a net loss of 324 advisers. This effectively means that there would have been a net loss excluding new entrants of 557, almost exclusively experienced advisers.

The advice data company added that licensee owners that currently have between 100 and 499 advisers have hired 55 new entrants, or 23.61 per cent of all new entrants. However, this segment currently has 31.44 per cent of all advisers, indicating it is hiring less than the broader average.

The three largest licensee owners, who have more than 500 advisers, have hired 51 new entrants or 21.89 per cent. This is higher than the percentage of all advisers in this segment at 15.81 per cent. AMP and Insignia both hired 22 new entrants and Centrepoint hired seven.

Sorting by business model, the hiring of new entrants is broadly in line with overall numbers, with the financial planning model hiring 69.46 per cent of all new entrants, which is slightly above the percentage of all advisers in the model at 66.61 per cent.

Sequoia Group added three advisers in the week ending 16 February, all heading to InterPrac, while AMP also added three, including a provisional adviser. Two advisers moved from Respect Financial Services to a new licensee, while small licensees Altitude and Innate added two provisional advisers each, and Centrepoint also added two.

There were 17 licensee owners up one adviser, including Insignia, Perpetual, and 14 licensee owners that have less than 20 advisers.

Count Group headed the losses this week, losing four advisers following a practice closing.

Janus, NAB, and Ned Schepis (the previously mentioned Respect Financial Services) were among six licensee owners who were down two advisers. A ceased licensee also lost two advisers.

Clime, Fitzpatricks, Macquarie Group, and Steinhardt (Infocus) were among 24 licensee owners down one adviser each.