PI renewal a catalyst for Infocus adviser exits
If financial advisers are simply looking for a license under which to operate, then Infocus Wealth Management is not for them, according Infocus chief executive, Darren Steinhardt.
Steinhardt’s comments were a reaction to the latest data from the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) which saw 10 advisers have departed the Infocus license, three of whom had already moved to another licensee.
He said that Infocus was looking to work closely with its advisers and “that if all they’re looking for is an AFSL – that’s not us”.
Speaking to Financial Newswire, Steinhardt pointed out that the company’s professional indemnity insurance (PI) renewed in April and the adviser exits, in part, reflected the fact they did not want to be billed for 12 months of cover.
However, he acknowledged that there had also been a termination of relationships.
The Infocus exits were noted within this week’s WealthData analysis which noted that 15 advisers had fallen off the Financial Adviser Register (FAR) this week, one of the largest exits number this year.
Key Adviser Movements This Week:
- Net Change of advisers down by (-15)
- Net Change of +53 for 2023 Calendar YTD
- 22 Licensee Owners had net gains for 27 advisers
- 21 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-43) advisers
- 4 new licensees and 2 ceased
- 5 New Entrants
- Number of advisers active this week appointed / resigned: 69
Summary
The number of advisers active this week who were appointed or resigned was 69. It was a busy week for some licensees with significant adviser movement, and we expect many of the advisers who resigned to reappear in the coming weeks.
Growth This Week
- Five licensee owners saw net growth of 2 advisers this week including 2 new licensees. Of the two licensees one commenced with advisers from Synchron and the other with advisers from Infocus
- Sequoia Group up by +2 with one new adviser joining from United Super and the other was finalising the switch from Libertas to Interprac (both owned by Sequoia)
- Fortnum also up by 2, with a practice moving across from Advice Evolution
- AAN Wealth up by 2, both being new entrants.
- 17 licensee owners up by +1 including Diverger, Centrepoint, Capstone and AMP Group. The reming two new licensees commenced with 1 adviser each.
Losses This Week
- Infocus were down by (-10), with 3 of the 10 advisers already being appointed elsewhere
- Insignia down by (-8), with what looks like five salaried Insignia staff taken off the FAR. Insignia is now inching towards 1,000 advisers at 1,042. At Jan 1, 2020 they had 2042 advisers
- WT Financial Group down (-3) after hiring 1 and losing 4 advisers
- 4 licensee owners were down by (-20 including Perpetual, Industry Super Holdings and Vinrac
- 14 licensee owners down by (-10 including Fitzpatricks, Shaw and Partners, Spark Partnership and Financial Link Group. Both licensees that closed had only the one adviser each.
Most of these larger institutional licences bill the adviser and so if they leave they have just forked out $6-10k with no refund. What a load of nonsense. Why would they licence not refund at least a portion. AMPFP was notorious for doing this.
Because they can…
They won’t release your clients unless everything goes exactly the way they want it.
Yeah when a licensee says, “that if all they’re looking for is an AFSL – that’s not us”
Seems as though they want to exert control over all their reps. This is another issue in the industry, and partly to blame for the compliance conundrum we are in. Licensees for qualified FPs should be abolished and replaced with self registration.
If you provide no service or value, charge excessive fees, treat advisers terribly then they have only themselves to blame.
“working closely with advisers”…I take it Advisers not using or fully supporting Darren’s Infocus Australian Share fund etc etc are not working close enough?