Data shows 101 new licensees in last 12 months

According to Wealth Data numbers for the financial planning model, which is the largest segment of advisers and those that are most likely to offer holistic advice to clients, there has been a net loss of 348 advisers over the last 12 months.

Wealth Data founder Colin Williams said: “The last 12 months is an interesting period of time as it takes in the movement at the close of last financial year (a lot of advisers leave in June), plus the movement pre and post the new calendar year.”

Over the period, a total of 101 new licensees entered the industry, with the vast majority having between one and four advisers, while 49 licensees shut their doors.

The largest growth for a single licensee over the last year was a new firm, risk advice specialist MBS with the addition of 18 advisers. PSK Group (up 17), Fortnum Private Wealth (up 15), Zurich Financial Services (up 14), and ASVW Holdings (up 13) rounded out the top five in terms of growth.

On the flipside, AMP suffered the largest losses with 158 adviser exits. Other licensees experiencing large drops in adviser numbers include Insignia (down 122), WT Financial Group (down 101), and ANZ (down 49).

“This highlights the difficulty that large licensees have been going through. However, many of the losses have been to micro AFSLs and they may well be buying services from the larger licensee owners,” Mr Williams added.

In more recent adviser movements, in the week to 11 May, the industry contracted by five to 15,845, with five new entrants to the Financial Advisers Register (FAR).

FSSSP Financial Services (Aware Super) lost three advisers, with none showing as being appointed elsewhere.

Findex, Ord Minnett, Choice Financial, and Insignia all lost two advisers each, while 14 licensee owners lost one adviser each.

Australian Administration Services, AMP Group, and Alexander Euvrard (Havana) were all up two advisers.

There were also 17 licensee owners up by one adviser each, including new licensees Count and AIA Company.