Women’s entry into advice is slowing, figures show

According to Wealth Data, just 23 per cent of all advisers on the Financial Advisers Register (FAR) are women. This number is expected to increase, with women comprising 35 per cent of all provisional advisers (PAs), but the proportion of new entrants has fallen in recent years.

“When we look across the past, we have seen a dip in female advisers post-January 2019. This is when FASEA qualifications came to the fore and the fallout from the royal commission began to kick in,” said Wealth Data founder Colin Williams.

The analysis found that the peak for female advisers was the period between January 2013 and December 2018, with 31 per cent of those that joined in that timeframe being women. For all advisers, including PAs post-January 2019, the percentage of new female entrants has fallen to 28 per cent, though there is a much smaller sample size with just 606 male and 239 female advisers.

“The adviser market boom leading up to the end of 2018 was driven by many factors, including banks hiring advisers, which used to have a higher proportion of female advisers to the market as a whole,” Mr Williams said.

“Now, the only business models with more than 30 per cent female advisers are Accounting - Limited Advice at 39 per cent and Super Funds at 34 per cent. Both of those models are small compared to the broader Financial Planning model, which is at 22 per cent, and Investment Advice at only 17 per cent.”

Adviser movement this week

Looking at Wealth Data figures for the week ended 14 September, there was a net gain of nine advisers, while just 58 advisers were involved in resignations or appointments.

The increase for the week took the total number of advisers to 15,709, representing a financial year increase of 144 advisers. There were also four new entrants to the industry.

“The growth for many licensees this week was dominated by appointing advisers from the licensee NextGen Financial Group, owned by The Financial Link Group,” Mr Williams said, adding that the licensee had lost 23 advisers in the previous two weeks.

WT Financial Group and Advisory Circle saw the largest gains for the week, with both up by three advisers, while Stellan Capital Group and LFG Financial Services were up two advisers each.

Oreana, Findex, Castleguard (Lifespan), and AIA Company were among 23 licensees that saw a net increase of one adviser each.

AMP Group had a net loss of four advisers, followed by Count Group, which lost three. Capstone, NextGen, and Togethr Trustees all lost two advisers each.

Insignia, Guideway, Picture Wealth, and Zurich Financial were among 11 licensees that saw a net loss of one adviser each.