AMP to regain crown as largest advice provider
AMP may again become Australia’s largest financial planning group as a result of Insignia Financial exiting its Millennium 3 license, according to the latest analysis from WealthData.
At the same time as financial advisers digest the Government’s new policy approach to financial advice including opening up scope for banks and insurers to provide limited advice, the WealthData pointed to 24 financial advisers exiting the Financial Adviser Register this week.
Those exits brought the total number of advisers to 15,670.
WealthData principal, Colin Williams pointed to the exit of the 24 advisers while also pointing out that six licensees had effectively closed their operations.
Key Adviser Movements This Week:
- Net change of advisers (-24)
- Current number of advisers at 15,670
- Net Change of (-129) for Calendar YTD
- Net Change Financial YTD +111
- 28 Licensee Owners had net gains of 51 advisers
- 36 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-77) advisers
- 1 New licensee and 6 ceased
- 5 New entrants.
- Number of advisers active this week, appointed / resigned: 125
Growth This Week – Licensee Owners
- Shaw and Partners picked up 13 advisers, 11 from Morgan Stanley and 2 from Macquarie
- 4 Licensee owners up by plus 3:
- Spark Partnership Group up by 3, with 2 advisers moving from Australian Investment and Insurance Group and 1 from Watershed Dealer Services
- Castleguard Trust (Lifespan) picking up 2 advisers from Australian Unity and 1 from EP Financial Services
- ASV Holdings with all 3 advisers coming across from Consultum
- Alexander Euvrard (Havana Financial Services), picking up 4 advisers, 3 of which came from CIP Licensing and 1 adviser coming back after a gap. They also lost 1 adviser for the net +3
- 3 Licensee owners up by net 2 including UniSuper with one adviser from Guideway and the other from Mercer
- 20 Licensee owners up by net 1 each including Capstone, Sequoia and Roskow.
Losses This Week – Licensee Owners
- Morgan Stanley down by (-14), as mentioned earlier, most moving to Shaw and Partners
- Insignia down by (-11), this included 5 at Millennium 3 (3 being staff), 1 at RI Advice and 5 at Consultum.
- Fortnum down by (-6), 2 from Fortnum and 4 from their acquired Australian Unity licensee, ‘Personal Financial Services Ltd’.
- 3 licensee owners down my (-3):
- AMP Group lost 4 and gained 1
- Count Group, who lost 1 from Affinia and 3 from Count Financial. Count Financial also appointed 1 adviser from Bridges
- Alteris Financial group (CIP Licensing) with advisers moving to Spark Partnership Group
- 8 Licensee owners down by (-2) each including Bell Financial, Shartru and PSK
- 21 licensee owners, down by (-1) each, including all 6 of the licensees that effectively closed.
Yet another article which fails to discern between RISK advisers and INVESTMENT advisers when stating the 15,670 “advisers” remaining. They are two different animals with two very different disciplines. This failure to differentiate has been discussed on these pages and many others ad nauseam. Why do publishers keep neglecting this. The total adviser number that’s always quoted would be much more meaningful if broken up this way. Yes, there’s ‘some’ overlap, however in the main an investment adviser or financial planner is not usually the same as a dedicated pure risk adviser.
There should be no such thing as a risk adviser or investment adviser. You either skill up to provide full advice under legislation or get out
Thanks for your opinion Curious onlooker. The fact remains that there are advisers who have and always will simply want to do risk advice. There is no suggestion they are not “skilled up” in all the required areas. They choose to specialize in risk, are comfortable doing so and will continue to do so. Conversely, there are advisers far less comfortable or interested in doing risk. There will always be this distinction – this is a fact. You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts. So, as per my initial comment the distinction should be made in articles such as this because there ARE the two distinct types of advisers with different skill sets and very different disciplines.
According to MP Jones, those ‘adviser’ numbers should be able to get back up to 30,000 in a short space of time? Oh, now we can see how he thought this would happen, by gifting his ISF’s, Banks and Insurer buddies a free get out of jail card. What will be interesting is whether Jones will also have to tweak the ASIC FAR to allow the ‘new class’ of ‘Qualified Advisers’ to bypass the usual qualifying credentials. But I guess given that ASIC reports to him that shouldn’t create too many obstacles, as anything really is possible under Australian Financial Services legislation.