Financial advice an attractive $20b growth market

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

14 November 2022

Financial planning and accounting represent an attractive growth market worth about $20 billion.

That is the assessment of publicly-listed financial services group, Diverger, which has used an investor briefing to explain why it pursuing a strategy to drive further into financial planning, including providing dealer group services.

The investor briefing, released as a result of the company’s annual general meeting, pointed to around 16,000 advisers working in advice accounting firms generating around $20 billion in revenue.

Importantly, it suggested that the environment pointed to strong underlying firm growth with reducing regulatory change and an ageing demographic and economic environment driving demand for advice.

It said this needed to be viewed against the background of a reduction in the number of financial advisers and a tight labour market limiting the supply of professionals.

Diverger’s assessment suggested that there were capacity constraints being experienced and that firms required critical service to operate.

It said the majority of advice and accounting firms were too small to internalise all required capabilities and that this was creating demand for Diverger’s services.

Diverger said its growth strategy was focused on leveraging the demand for services and that it would be pursuing accelerator acquisitions to extend its scale and capabilities.

It said it would be invest into advice practices, growing back-office services, tending membership and training to advice firms and extending its managed portfolio services while exploring other service expansion opportunities.