Major licensees looking for growth via provisional advisers

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

25 November 2022

With the exit of the banks from financial advice the profession lost an adviser training ground, but there are now signs that the remaining major licensees are stepping up to fill the breach.

The latest analysis of the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) from WealthData shows that amid the adviser churn between licensee groups, larger firms are taking a bottom-up approach by taking on provisional advisers.

In a week during which 10 new provisional advisers, WealthData principal, Colin Williams pointed to the fact that Insignia Group is amongst those leading the way accounting for four of the new entrants.

Williams said it was It is worth noting that Insignia have overtaken AMP for the number of Provisional Advisers, now at 24, 3 ahead of AMP at 21. Morgans is at 8, Centrepoint at 9, WT Financial group at 8 and both Diverger and Count at 5.

Overall, adviser numbers decreased by another net four this week, bringing to 323 the number of advisers lost to the profession since the start of the financial year, and 1,275 with respect to the calendar year to date.

The total number of advisers on the FAR currently stands at 15,899, and has been relatively stable over the past two months.

Key Adviser Movements This Week:

Net Change of advisers -4

23 Licensee Owners had net gains for 28 advisers

24 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-30) advisers

5 new licensees, with 3 re-commencing and  (-3) ceased

10 Provisional Advisers (PAs) commenced and none ceased.

Growth This Week

At the licensee owner level, Insignia lead the way with net growth of 4, boosted by the hiring of 5 Provisional Advisers with just the one adviser exiting the group from Millennium 3. See more later as we take a closer look of the major licensee owners.

Industry Super Holdings continue their growth up a net 2 advisers, one from UniSuper and the other from Charter. Owner Christopher Humphrey (Radius Wealth) up 2 with both advisers coming across from the Financial Link Group.  A tail of 20 licensees up by net 1 including all five new licensees, (Note: 3 recommenced after dropping off during the past 12 months). Other licensee owners up by 1 include Sequoia, Fortnum and Morgans.

Losses This Week

Diverger and the Financial Link Group both down by (-3) each.  All Diverger exits via Merit Wealth and none showing as being reappointed. The Financial Link Group have had a tough year, losing (-52) advisers, down from 98 as of Jan 1 , 2022 to 46 as of today.

A tail of 20 licensee owners are down by net (-1) including AAN Wealth, Centrepoint, Count, Ord Minnett and WT Financial Group.