New FAAA has work ahead of it on membership
If all the stars align for the newly-formed Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA) then it could start off its newly-merged life with more than 8,500 advisers, according to WealthData analysis.
The analysis looked at the membership of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) at the time of their merger and concluded that they had the potential to represent 66% of advisers registered on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR).
WealthData principal, Colin Williams, said the vast majority of the potential FAAA advisers (6,988) were categorised under WealthData Financial Planning model.
“When we look at the Financial Planning business model and split between advisers who commenced before 2013 it is 75% and only 46% for those advisers who commenced after 2013,” Williams said. “This suggests that the FAAA has some work to do with newer advisers.”
“When we dig a bit deeper in this business model, the FAAA potential is at 60% for licensee owners that have between 20-49 advisers up to a high of 71% for the three licensee owners that have 500+,” he said.
“At the licensee owner level, the results are more wide ranging. Insignia at 79% and Centrepoint at 82% have a high potential membership, whereas AMP Group is much lower at 56%. Sequoia is the lowest at 44%.”
“The charts indicate that the new FAAA may have a big opportunity but not without risks. No doubt other associations will be hoping that this is a good time to extend their reach. We are seeing a greater number of advisers seeking to start their own AFSL, with another four starting this week. Any association must be able to deliver a proposition that is flexible enough to appeal to all types of advisers working in very different licensees.”
Key Adviser Movements This Week:
- Net Change of advisers up by +1
- Net Change of +66 for 2023 YTD
- 44 Licensee Owners had net gains for 50 advisers
- 32 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-48) advisers
- 4 new licensee and 3 ceased
- 24 New Entrants*
- Number of advisers active this week appointed / resigned: 120
Summary
A net gain of only 1 adviser suggests a quiet week. However, some 120 advisers have been affected with 24 new entrants, 4 new licensees and more losses for some major licensees. With 24 new entrants but only a net gain of 1, indicates that 23 experienced advisers have ceased on the ASIC FAR.
Growth This Week
- Bell Financial Group up by +3 with 2 of the new recruits being new entrants
- Ord Minnett Group up by 2 with both advisers coming across from JBWere
- Evans Dixon and Blue Rock 2020 both up by 2 and all advisers are new entrants
- A new licensee commenced with 2 advisers, both ex Affinia (now part of Count Group) – Details provided to members
- A total of 39 licensee owners up by net 1 each including the remaining 3 new licensees, Sambe Investments, Perpetual, Diverger and Steinhardt Holdings (Infocus).
Losses This Week
- Insignia down by (-5), with 3 of the 5 advisers switching to new licensees
- Sequoia Group also down by (-5). Most of the losses at its licensee Libertas and they may well reappear next week as Sequoia transition advisers from Libertas to Interprac
- WT Financial Group down (-4), 2 each from Synchron and Sentry
- Centrepoint down (-3), losing 4 and appointing 1
- 3 licensee owners down (-2) including one closed licensee
- 25 licensee owners down (-1) each including AMP who had a busy week appointing 6 advisers including 2 new entrants but losing (-7). Note: AMP Financial Planning the largest individual licensee on the ASIC FAR is now at 508 advisers and in danger of dropping below 500 very soon
- Other licensee owners down by (-1) include Capstone, Highfield Group and Bombora.
Relevance! Look at the numbers that even bothered to vote on the merger. The FAAA needs to show a value proposition to attract & keep membership. Given there is only one peak industry association now 66% seems like a lazy target in itself. The days of large bank owned dealer group signing up all of their advisers is past.
The FAAA is not relevant at all. They don’t represent Advisers solely, they represent a whole range of participants in the advice industry and expect me to pay their wages. They don’t listen to members and simply are not interested in talking to their members at all.
My needs as an Adviser are quite different to AwareSuper and there non-advisory staff. AwareSuper frankly are big enough to look after itself. I don’t see why the FAA needs to be listening to the concerns of some Manager at a large Super fund like AwareSuper or Hesta,. That person even though there in the industry, they have no skin in the game, they’re not an Adviser and just because they’re the future growth, I can’t see the benefit of me being a member of a body like that and wasting $1,000 a year. But that’s the future I’ve been told for them.
Aware super and others know how to silence th3e voice of the adviser lobby…that’s why they join.
Technically speaking, product companies aren’t allowed to join. But they weasel around it by paying in bulk for their employees and reps whom they compel to join, and by sponsoring events. The end result is they still provide a large chunk of FPA’s (and now FAAA’s) income, and have significant influence over policy and lobbying.