Financial Adviser Insights, Aug 17, 2023
Adviser Numbers This Week, Net Change of +2 Moving Up From 15, 711 To 15,713
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The number of advisers increased by 2, boosted by a total of 14 new entrants.
Key Adviser Movements This Week:
Net Change of advisers +2
Current number of advisers at 15,713
Net Change of (-87) for Calendar YTD
Net Change new Financial YTD +146
21 Licensee Owners had net gains for 28 advisers
20 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-25) advisers
1 New licensee and 1 ceased
14 New entrants
Number of advisers active this week, appointed / resigned: 59.
Growth This Week - Licensee Owners
Insignia had a solid week of growth, up by 7. The growth included 3 new entrants and the remaining 4 advisers all came from different licensees, most after having a short break from advice. Of the 7 advisers, 6 commenced at Consultum and the remaining adviser at Millennium 3
Kaizen Wealth up by 2, both being new entrants
19 licensee owners up by net one each including Shaw and Partners, Fitzpatricks, Fiducian, Shartru and the lone new licensee.
Losses This Week - Licensee Owners
Count Group were down by net (-3) advisers. Count Financial appointed one new entrant and lost one adviser to Picture Wealth. Affinia lost 3 advisers, including one who commenced their own AFSL this week
Diverger Group also down by (-3), losing 2 advisers at Merit Wealth and 1 at GPS Wealth
DFS No 1- (My Fortress) down by (-2), both advisers have not been appointed elsewhere at this stage
17 licensee owners down by (-1) each including, AIA Company, Castleguard Trust (Lifespan), Macquarie Group and Unisuper.
Are We There Yet?
To say that the financial planning profession has been living in turbulent times over recent years would be an understatement. And just as things seemed to be settling down during the first half of this year, with adviser numbers stabilising, we now learn of Insignia breaking up its portfolio of licensees, AMP open to considering a similar path to Insignia (all options on the table) and yesterday, Clime striking a deal with a group that head Godfrey Pembroke, which is currently owned by Insignia.
It’s difficult to know exactly ‘where’ financial planning models are heading, let alone if we have reached a destination. All the data tends to suggest that self licensed models or ‘Micro AFSLs’ as we like to refer to them, have definitely shaken up traditional models.
The chart below, taken from Dashboard 6A Historical Data from our Licensee Deep Dive set, shows the change in number of advisers and active licensees since the start of 2019. The data is for the main advice models in our peer groupings being - Financial Planning (holistic advice) Accounting - Financial Planning (holistic advice through licensees owned by accountants) and Investment Advice (licensees that specialise mostly in direct / investment advice) and Super Funds.
What the chart shows is that since the start of 2019, the number of advisers in the business models have dropped by -8,766 or -36.93%. However, the number of licensees has increased by 253 or 17.51%. All the licensee growth has been driven by advisers starting their own ‘micro AFSLs’. For example, back in 2019 there were 568 licensees with up to 2 advisers, that number is now at 869 (see Dashboard 6C Licensee Band History).
Change in Advisers and Licensees Jan 1 2019 to Aug 17, 2023 - Major Business Models Only
Whilst at first sight, those figures look bleak for the major licensees, they still dominate the number of advisers. Currently, 41.2% of all advisers are in 30 licensees that are greater than 100 advisers in size, and a further 24% sit in licensees of between 20 and 99 advisers. Whereas the number of advisers in Micro AFSLs of less than 10 advisers is current sitting at 27.1%.
So we’re a long way from reaching a final destination, but the next few months will be very interesting to follow and may at least shed some light as to where the final destination is going to be.
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