New entrants continue to drive adviser growth

Insights from Wealth Data has seen the advice sector increase by 19 advisers over the past week ending 16 May.

This was significantly boosted by the 21 new advisers who joined over the week, while 14 joined the week prior.

“Adviser numbers for the calendar year are ‘back in black’,” noted Wealth Data founder Colin Williams, with the net change since the start of 2024 improving from a loss of four last week to gains of 15 this week.

The last time that the net change for the calendar year was in positive territory was 21 March.

Following the latest adviser exam which saw 210 candidates pass, Williams said a surge of new entrants to the financial advice system are expected in the following weeks.

Over the past four weeks alone, the advice sector has welcomed 50 new entrants.

The current number of Australian advisers sits at 15,630. Interestingly, the number of new licensees versus ceased licensees this YTD is approaching an even balance at 43 new and 39 ceased, Williams observed.

The past week saw 37 licensee owners have net gains of 45 advisers in total. AMP Group led the way with an increase of four advisers, three of which were new entrants while two advisers were from other licensees and the firm lost one adviser who has not been appointed elsewhere yet.

Five licensee owners increased by net two each. WT Financial Group welcomed two new entrants, gained one adviser from Fiducian Group and lost one who has not been appointed elsewhere to date.

Insignia Group picked up two advisers, one at Bridges Financial Services, who returned from a break, and another at RI Advice who switched from Findex.

NAB Bank Group welcomed one adviser at JBWere and the other at NAB Bank, with both being new entrants, while Dirigere Advisory added two advisers from Four Points Financial Services.

AVANT Group Holding also restarted with two advisers after going to zero advisers in April. One of the advisers entered back into advice after leaving the FAR in late 2018.

A tail of 31 licensee owners increased by net one adviser each, such as Macquarie Group, Findex, and Centrepoint Group.

Looking at the losses over the week, 23 licensee owners had net losses of 25 advisers in total.

Sequoia Group lost two advisers, with one adviser joining Alpine Financial and the other yet to be appointed elsewhere.

David Meek (Four Points) lost two advisers, meaning it has moved to zero advisers, while a tail of 21 licensee owners were down by one adviser each, including Canaccord, Capstone, Clime, Count and three remaining licensees which have now ceased (moved to zero advisers).