81 advisers exit FAR

Financial adviser numbers have declined to just 15,508 with a further 81 advisers exiting the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) driven in part by licensees changing the status of non-practising personnel.

WealthData principal, Colin Williams has expressed surprise at the level of this week’s decline, but said it might well be the case that many advisers are in the process of switching licensees.

The bottom line, however, is that a total of 107 advisers have exited the FAR so far in 2024.

Key Adviser Movements This Week:

• Net change of advisers (-81)
• Current number of advisers at 15,508
• Net Change Calendar 2024 YTD (-107)
• Net Change Financial YTD (-48)
• 12 Licensee Owners had net gains of 14 advisers
• 38 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-95) advisers
• One new licensee commenced and none ceased
• Zero New entrants
• Number of advisers active this week, appointed / resigned: 110.

Growth This Week – Licensee Owners

• Cancaccord Group was the only firm to have net growth greater than one. They hired three advisers with two moving across from Macquarie and one from Morgan Stanley
• Eleven licensee owners up by net one including Fortnum, Findex and a new licensee.

Losses This Week – Licensee Owners

• Australian Retirement Trust (ART) down by (-20). Last week they had the largest gain, up by six advisers. ART advisers that ceased, were not ‘member facing’ and are still employed by ART. The changes reflect the strategic repositioning of advice delivery at ART
• Count Limited down by (-11). This included two staff members (not advisers) on the Count licensee and nine advisers at Merit Wealth. All the Merit Wealth advisers were restricted to SMSF Advice and could not offer broad based investment advice – See more below re losses this financial year to date by business models
• AvalonFS down by six advisers. None of the advisers showing as being appointed elsewhere
• Sequoia Group also down by six advisers and again none showing as being appointed elsewhere
• Centrepoint down by four advisers, hiring one adviser from RI Advice and losing five advisers – only one being appointed elsewhere
• Four licensee owners down by 3 advisers each including Insignia, NTAA (SMSF Adviser Network) and Telstra
• Seven licensee owners down by 2 including, AMP Group, Shartru and WT Financial Group
• 22 licensee owners down by one including Bell Financial, Hejaz Capital and Ord Minnett