Have advisers been practising despite exam failure?
Questions are being asked about whether a number of financial advisers may have been continuing to practice despite their failure to pass the financial advisers’ exam in the wake of new Financial Adviser Register (FAR) data.
WealthData principal, Colin Williams has sought clarity from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) around the status of nine advisers whose removal from the register was back-dated to 1 January, this year.
WealthData noted that the nine advisers were connected to 11 licensees which were listed as having closed, with Williams speculating that the retrospective removal of the nine advisers perhaps reflecting audit and compliance action on the part of ASIC.
It is not the first time that ASIC has post-dated the status of advisers on the FAR with the previous occasions being attributed to audit and compliance work by the regulator, however Williams said it did raise serious questions about the current licensee reporting regime which appeared to be allowing some advisers remain on the FAR for far too long.
The bottom line, however, is that after more than a month of only marginal change to the FAR, adviser numbers dropped by a further 30 this week with 11 licensees having been listed as closing.
This was offset by five new licensees, four of them single adviser entities, being registered.
Key Adviser Movements This Week:
Net Change of advisers (-30)
20 Licensee Owners had net gains for 24 advisers
38 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-54) advisers
5 new licensees and (-11) ceased
1 Provisional Adviser (PAs) commenced and none ceased.
Summary
The first week of heavy losses in a while prompted by the closure of small licensees, (see more below) and only the one new Provisional Adviser.
Growth This Week
Limited growth numbers this week with only 20 licensee owners having net growth and five of them being new licensees (Details provided to members). A new licensee commenced with 3 advisers, all moving away from Synchron, now owned by WT Financial Group. Perpetual up by 2 with both backdated to June 2022.
Centrepoint also up plus 2, with one coming back after a break and a new entrant but not classed as a Provisional Adviser. 17 licensee owners are up net 1 including Steinhardt (Infocus) who picked up one adviser who was previously at Aware Super, Fiducian, Findex, AAN Wealth management and the remaining 4 new licensees,
Losses This Week
MCA Financial Planners down (-6) with 4 yet to be appointed elsewhere. MCA commenced the year with 34 advisers and are now down to 11. Insignia down net (-4) after losing 5 advisers and gaining 1. Australian Administration Service (Link) down (-3) and none appointed elsewhere and WT Financial Group also down (-3), all losses at Synchron. WT Financial Group are down (-279) advisers or (-37.60%) for the calendar year.
Four licensee owners, AMP, Diverger, Fortnum and Fitzpatricks down net (-2) each. A long tail of 30 licensee owners down a net (-1) including all 11 closed licensees.
They’ve just been operating under the new QAR guidelines as proposed by Michelle Levy. They’re just ahead of the current regulatory regime lol.