Financial Adviser Insights, July 4, 2024
Adviser Numbers This week - Decreased by (-78), Moving From 15,508 To 15,430
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Weekly Summary
As expected, this was a very volatile week, resulting in a net loss of (-78) advisers. This is a big hit especially after last week’s loss of (-81) and this week included 20 new entrants. However, we expect that the next week or two will see additional advisers get back onto the ASIC Financial Adviser Register as licensees update their data. Licensees have up to 30 days to update adviser details.
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Key Adviser Movements This Week:
*Net change of advisers (-78)
Current number of advisers at 15,430
Net Change Calendar 2024 YTD (-185)
*Net Change THIS NEW Financial YTD +78
Net Change LAST Financial Year 2023/24 (-205)
50 Licensee Owners had net gains of 75 advisers
74 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-154) advisers
8 new licensees commenced and (-4) ceased
20 New entrants
Number of advisers active this week, appointed / resigned: 246
*Note To the Numbers: The week-to-week numbers are a pure ‘snapshot’ of actual adviser last week versus this week. All other data is based on actual dates of appointments and resignations. What we have seen this week is a large number of resignations, hence (-78) loss for the week. Almost all resignations for the week have been ‘dated’ into the last financial year. Whereas the new appointments for the week have almost all been dated in this new financial year, hence the strong start to this financial year.
Growth This Week - Licensee Owners
Note: Members can see all the advisers by name and licensee at Adviser Fast Facts - Dashboard 3 - Weekly Change By Adviser Details
Vincents Advisory gained seven advisers, all moving from Morgans
A new licensee commenced with five advisers, from the Godfrey Pembroke licensee
Another new licensee commenced with four advisers, moving from AMP Financial Planning
Three licensees were up by three advisers each:
MPFinplan with advisers moving from Fortnum Private
A new licensee with advisers moving from Interprac owned by Sequoia
And another new licensee with two advisers moving from Oreana and one from GPS Wealth
Six licensee owners up by net 2 each including: another new licensee, Lifespan who appointed four advisers from four different licensees and lost two advisers. And Alteris Financial who hired two advisers both coming back after a break.
A long tail of 38 licensee owners up by net one each including Unisuper, Australian Retirement Trust and ASVW Holdings.
Losses This Week - Licensee Owners
Insignia down by a net (-13) advisers. Appointing one new entrant and 14 advisers ceased, none being appointed elsewhere to date. There are few staff members in this mix
Fortnum Private down by net 10 advisers. A busy week with a couple of advisers switching from their Personal Financial Services to Fortnum Private AFSL. Losing one adviser who commenced his own AFSL and as mentioned above, losing advisers to MPFinplan
AMP Group down by net eight advisers, as mentioned above, losing four advisers to a new licensee, another five ceased and not appointed elsewhere to date and hiring one adviser at Charter
Morgans down by 7, despite hiring three advisers from different licensees, but losing 10 advisers with most moving to Vincents as mentioned above
Practice Development Group (Godfrey Pembroke) down by six, with the advisers starting their own licensee
WT Financial Group also down by six advisers despite hiring five advisers, a mix from Latitude and RSM. Eleven advisers ceased and not showing as being appointed elsewhere
Count Limited down by five advisers, they appointed six advisers, three being new entrants and lost 10 advisers, 6 from Count and four from GPS Wealth.
Centrepoint Group down by 4 advisers, losing five and one joined from Addition Wealth
Macquarie Group also down by four, none of the advisers showing as being appointed elsewhere
Eight licensee owners down by three advisers each including Capstone, Findex and Oreana
Eleven licensee owners down by 2 advisers each including Canaccord, Janus Financial and Bluewater Financial.
A total of 47 licensee owners down by one each, the longest tail in a long while. This list includes two licensees that closed, Guideway and Picture Wealth.
What a difference two weeks can make
On June 20, two weeks ago, the 2023/24 financial year to date was showing a positive growth of +33 advisers for the financial year. The financial year is currently showing a loss of (-205).
On the upside, this current loss is significantly less than the previous financial year that closed with a net loss of (-633). The main difference between the numbers, is that the last opportunity to remain on the FAR, by passing the FASEA exam, was held during the previous financial year.
The new financial year is off to a positive start at +78. But at the same time last year, it was +136. We do expect to improvement on the +78 number as updates keep coming in over the next couple of weeks
The calendar year is now down by (-185). Two weeks ago it was only (-26). At the same stage for the last calendar year it was down by (-109). Based on this data, it looks like 2024 is heading for a bigger loss than 2023, which is disappointing given the positive start. The total loss for the full 2023 year was (-187).
Next week we will provide a complete summary of the last financial year which will be clearer with one additional week of data.
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Adviser Qualifications Shown To The Public - Important Change
Effective from July 1, 2024, Adviser qualifications will no longer be shown as ‘Approved’ and by default ‘Not Approved’. Secondly, advisers who are giving advice under the experience pathway, will not be identified.
The change is important especially at ASICs Moneysmart’s, ‘Check a Financial Adviser’ page, which has been getting some 40,000 page views per month - That’s a lot.
Prior to this change, the ‘consumer’ would see a list of adviser qualifications and some would be shown as ‘Approved’. The results would have caused some confusion for the consumer, as some licenses would enter basic qualification updates for their advisers as ‘Approved’, while other advisers had very good qualifications but not showing up as approved.
It is still important for licensees to identify their adviser’s qualifications as being approved / not approved. This is still critical, as all advisers will need to be approved in one form or another to give advice from Jan 1, 2026 - See Media release From ASIC. Failure to get this right will be troublesome with ASIC stating that they will ‘consider enforcement action where necessary’.
One last point - spelling matters, at least to the public. When we run our systems to pick up on who has / does not have certain qualifications, we do see a lot of basic errors. For example, the spelling of Bachelor is often incorrect. Might not sound like a big issue, but those little things can make the difference in the eyes of the public.