Proof of how the FASEA exam forced adviser exits

The degree to which the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) exam has acted as an ejection mechanism for financial advisers has been laid bare in data showing that of the 27,930 who started the journey in 2018, only 55% have passed.

The WealthData analysis is now forecasting that around 15,552 advisers will have passed the exam by the end of the year with, of course, a few more looking to resit the exam next year.

Explaining the WealthData approach, principal Colin Williams said the firm had estimated that some 14,302 advisers had passed the exam and were ‘current’ advisers on the Financial Adviser Register (FAR).

“To get to our Forecast FASEA passes of 15,552, we have estimated that 1,700 advisers attempted the exam in September (based on FASEA Media Release Aug 31) and a further 800 will sit in November. A total of 2,500 and assumed a pass rate of 50%. This is quite low for a pass rate and is based on the fact that the majority will be re-sitting the exam and in July, the pass rate for advisers re-sitting the exam was only 39%,” he said.

“The estimate of 15,552 has been reasonably consistent all year with estimates of between 15,000 to 16,000,” he said.

However he cautioned that the per centage forecast of passes at 82.35% could be misleading as it was based on current advisers.

“When FASEA was introduced, there was a mad rush to become an adviser before year end 2018. At that time there was 27,930 advisers. Therefore, the forecast pass rate only represents 55.68% of advisers who started the FASEA journey,” Willaims said.

Key Movements This Week:

Net Change of advisers (-15)

27 Licensee Owners had net gains for 32 advisers

26 Licensee Owners had net losses for (-43) advisers

30 Individual Licensees had net gains of 47 – Includes 12 at Evans and Partners.

34 Individual Licensees had net losses of (-46)

4 Provisional Advisers (PAs) appointed.

Growth This Week

Licensee Owners. Sequoia through Interprac gained 3 advisers, 2 from IOOF and 1 from AMP Financial Planning. Oreana continued to grow at the expense of Ord Minnett (EL & C Baillieu) with another 2 advisers finalising their move to Oreana. Castleguard also gained two as did Dirk Werner licensee MPFS Private, both are new Provisional Advisers. Shartru, Unisuper and QSuper were among a long tail that all picked up 1 new adviser each.

There was one new licensee for 1 adviser.

As mentioned in the stats above, Evans and Dixon grew by 12 at a licensee level. All are existing advisers also working under the Dixon Advisory licensee and both are owned by Evans Dixon. They have not been shown as growth in dashboard 1B which is based on Licensee Owners, in-fact they are down (-1) as a group for the week.

Losses This Week

IOOF as a group had a net loss of (-5) advisers. AMP Group and Synchron both down by (-4). Auscoal (Mine Super) and Marsh and Mercer both down (-3) and CBA down (-2).  A long list of licensee owners losing a net (-1) each, including Ord Minnett, Perks Private Wealth, Mancell Family Trust who own FYG Planners.

One licensee closed.

Year To Date Data

Viewing net change by Licensee Owners with 50 or more Advisers, Oreana extended their lead in terms of growth, now at 37 for the calendar year, a big gap to second spot held by Centrepoint Group at 10. Capstone is third on the list at 7.

By moving the date back to Jan 1, 2020, Castleguard Trust (Lifespan) are at the top with +54 and Oreana second with 48 and Fortnum with 38.