Acquisition prompts significant shift in adviser numbers

The financial advice and fintech firm – which has offices located in NSW, Western Australia and South Australia – has purchased Superannuation Advice Australia (formerly licensed to AAN Wealth Management) and Financial Advice Australia (formerly licensed to KNR Investments) in the past week.

According to Wealth Data, this has led PictureWealth Advisory to lift its adviser count by 32 over the past week – with the Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensee now having 43 advisers in total.

As a result of the move, AAN Wealth Management lost 33 advisers and now has just three advisers remaining at the licensee. KNR Investments’ AFS licensee bid farewell to three advisers, with just one adviser under its licence now.

Both AAN and KNR are based in Brisbane, potentially indicating PictureWealth is trying to move into the Queensland market where it does not currently have a presence.

“The numbers this week were dominated by PictureWealth securing two firms and increasing their net number of advisers by 32,” said Wealth Data founder Colin Williams.

PictureWealth also made two acquisitions last year as it purchased both Futuro Financial Services and Insight Investment Services. It also acquired Neo Financial Services in 2020.

More broadly, the advice profession declined by five advisers over the week ending 26 September, offsetting gains of five in the previous week.

This was despite 14 new entrants joining the industry. Over 100 advisers were active with appointments and resignations during the week, while three new licensees commenced and none ceased.

In terms of adviser growth, 26 licensee owners had net gains of 64 advisers in total.

This included two licensees that welcomed three advisers each. Rhombus Advisory appointed two new advisers and one hire from AIA Financial Services. Over at Morgans Group, the firm added two advisers and gained one from AMP Financial Planning.

Three AFS licensees rose by two advisers each and 20 licensees gained one adviser each, such as Fiducian.

Looking at adviser losses, 28 licensee owners declined by 67 advisers in total.

Following the declines seen at AAN Wealth Management and KNR Investments, NTAA was down by three advisers.

Another three licensees lost two advisers each, including AMP Group which was down by three but appointed one new entrant. Insignia Financial lost one adviser each at Actuate Alliance Services and Bridges. Additionally, WT Financial Group lost one adviser at Millennium3 and two from Synchron and hired one new entrant at Synchron.

A tail of 22 AFSLs were down by one adviser each, such as Lifespan Financial Planning, Count, Fortnum and Sequoia.

Last week, Wealth Data examined the calendar year-to-date change in the number of advisers offering holistic advice alongside other advice business models.