Advice sector growing from bottom and middle

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

18 March 2022

Most growth in the Australian financial planning industry is occurring within the mid-sized licensees and among self-licensed advisers.

The latest analysis from WealthData has revealed that while Insignia (IOOF) and AMP Limited will be the two largest advice groups, most growth is being driven by mid-sized licensees such as Centrepoint, Count Financial and WT Financial Group via active adviser recruitment and mergers and acquisitions.

The WealthData analysis of the four largest groups confirms this showing that Insignia is down from 1,255 advisers to 1,205, AMP is down from 1,118 to 1,099 while WT Financial Group, notwithstanding its acquisition of Synchron has declined from 579 to 560, while Centrepoint which last year picked up ClearView Financial Advice has grown by just seven from 522 to 529.

The WealthData analysis also explains that while WT Group had grown its adviser numbers to over 600 as a result of the Synchron acquisition, only 560 of those were actually on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) with the remainder not being authorised to provide personal/retail financial advice.

The following represents the key movements noted by WealthData this week:

Net Change of advisers (-41)

23 Licensee Owners had net gains for 32 advisers

32 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-74) advisers

2 new licensees commenced, 1 restarting after change of ownership and (-5) closed

5 Provisional Advisers (PA) commenced.

Growth This Week

TFG Australia – trading as HPH Solutions picked up 4 advisers this week , 3 from Consultum and 1 an adviser who had a break between roles.

6 groups had net growth of 2 advisers including two new licensees. Both new licensees moved away from Insignia Group – Lonsdale and Consultum.  Parker Wealth did grow a net 2, both Provisional Advisers. Australian Unity picking up 2, 1 each from Lifespan and Link.

A long tail of 16 licensee owners with a net growth of 1 each including Fiducian, Count and Fortnum.

Losses This Week

Losses dominated by Craigs Investment Partners, down (-28). This licensee is NZ based, servicing clients with a focus on direct shares. 5 licensees closed for the loss of (-9) advisers. One of those licensees, Chancellor Portfolio Service closed for the loss of 4 advisers and 2 have been reappointed at Wilsons Advisory.

AMP Group down (-3) followed by 5 licensees down by (-2) including Loan Market and Mortgage Choice who are running down their licensees.

Another long tail with 23 licensee owners down net (-1) including PSK, Sequoia and Unisuper.

Year To Date Data

Count pushes further ahead and are now up 29 for the year. Castleguard (Lifespan) remain steady at 13. PSK and Diverger at 11. Steinhardt (Infocus) make up the top 5 with a gain of 7 advisers.

As for losses, Insignia lead the way down (-50). Craigs now in the mix down (-36) and a gap to AMP Group down (-19).

WT Financial – Now Third largest Group

WT Financial (WTL ASX Code) created the big news this week with the announcement of purchasing Synchron. This takes them to 560 financial advisers registered on the ASIC Financial Adviser register (FAR).

The announcement did say their combined firm now has 600+ ‘Advisers’ and some media reported this is 600+ Financial Advisers. WTL do have some 50 Authorised Representatives who are not authorised to provide personal / retail financial advice, hence do not appear on the ASIC FAR and cannot be called financial advisers.