Adviser numbers see small gain amid busy week of movement

There was a net gain of two advisers during the week to 13 March, according to Wealth Data.

However, one licensee – Wealth Trail – was down by 27, which brought its overall net losses to 63.

The losses mean that Wealth Trail, which is owned by Chris MacEachern, now has zero advisers.

The reason for the high volume of losses is the advisers were temporarily authorised at two AFSL, Wealth Trail and Endeavour Asset Management (EAM), after EAM’s AFSL gained 24 advisers at the end of January. All 27 advisers who departed now sit within EAM.

Clarifying this, Wealth Data founder Colin Williams said: “The [weekly] losses appear high. However, some 27 of the losses recorded of the 63 are advisers who were authorised at two AFSLs and now only authorised at only one AFSL. Therefore, these advisers have not dropped off the ASIC FAR.

“This type of movement occurs from time to time, but typically it involves major groups.”

Entireti and Akumin Group are down by six, appointing one adviser at Fortnum who moved from First Mutual and losing seven advisers, five to a new licensee and the other two are yet to be appointed elsewhere. Count is also down by six, none of whom have been appointed elsewhere, with five leaving Merit Wealth and one leaving Count.

It was announced earlier this month that the AMP Financial Planning, Charter Financial Planning and Hillross brands would be known as Akumin now that they are part of Entireti. The brands were acquired by Entireti last August from AMP.

Five licensee owners are down by two and 14 are down by one each, including Perpetual, Lifespan and Fitzpatricks.

Looking at gains, a new licensee commenced with five advisers who left AMP Financial Planning (now part of Akumin), while Ord Minnett was also up by five. All five of the advisers who moved to Ord Minnett previously worked at Perpetual.

Centrepoint Alliance was up by four and PSK Group was up by two. Wealth Data clarified that PSK Group picked up three advisers from Charter (now part of Akumin) but lost one to Strategic Finance Partners.

A tail of 24 licensee owners were up by one adviser each, including Spark Partnership Group and Capstone.