Netwealth reports ‘strong growth’ in new advisers

Covering the six months to 31 December, the firm said statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) was $57.6 million for the period – an increase of 46.6 per cent from $39.3 million in the prior corresponding period.

Funds under administration (FUA) net flows were $8.5 billion, some 80.2 per cent higher than the $4.7 billion reported in the first half of FY23–24. This was thanks to two consecutive quarters of record net flows, Netwealth highlighted, with $4 billion in the September quarter and $4.5 billion in the December quarter.

This saw total FUA surpass $100 billion for the first time to $101.6 billion, up by 30.2 per cent from $78 billion.

Total funds under management were $24 billion, up from $18 billion, divided between $20.7 billion in managed accounts and $3.2 billion in managed funds.

Platform revenue was $150.8 million, up from $120.7 million, with 42 per cent of this coming from administration fees.

Netwealth said the platform is used by 3,811 financial intermediaries, a small increase of 4.9 per cent. Advisers who were new to the Netwealth platform in 2024 delivered $1.5 billion in FUA net flows in their first year, which was up from $1.1 billion from advisers who joined in 2023.

It also noted a “strong expansion of high-value customer tiers” with institutional, ultra-high-net-worth and family office customers accounting for 18 per cent of funds under administration at the end of the year.

The firm said: “We achieved strong growth in the number of new accounts and advisers for 1H25. Conversion rates remained very strong and diversified across all customer tiers. New adviser and licensee relationships have expanded our new business pipeline. FUA inflows for the remainder of FY25 are also supported by a transition pipeline of recent new customer wins. Total FUA as at 18 February 2025 was $105.4 billion, with net flows for 3Q25 to date of $1.5 billion.

“In light of the strong 1H25 performance, we have further advanced several planned initiatives and continue to invest in our people, product, security and technology capabilities. These investments aim to capitalise on both existing and emerging market opportunities, to drive sustainable profit growth and benefits to our customers and members.”

The firm declared a 17.5 cents per share fully franked interim dividend.

Speaking on its results webinar, Netwealth CEO Matt Heine said: “It has been a really good start to the year and we’re very confident about the current pipeline. The pipeline is large and importantly, it is diversified across all regions. We’ve made some key appointments within the sales team which should help drive future flows and we’re seeing really good diversification across our client segments. We’re feeling good about where we’re at.”

Heine also highlighted private assets as a “huge opportunity” for the business amid its focus on servicing high-net-worth investors and high-value customers.

“We’re certainly seeing movement, so if we look at our own books and a number of these discussions that we’re having where we’ve either been successful moving across or will be, it’s institutional accounts where they’ve been on more traditional custody platforms which have got limited functionality and can be quite expensive. We’re seeing family offices moving significant money across [to Netwealth] where they may have historically invested directly, whether locally or internationally.”