The shape and texture of the advice industry changed irrevocably

The shape and texture of the Australian financial planning industry has changed with most growth occurring with respect to small licensees but also amongst mid-sized licensees such as Centrepoint, Count and Oreana.

As the industry moves fully into 2022, the latest analysis from Wealth Data confirms that AMP and Insignia (IOOF) remain the two largest financial planning licensees, but that they spent much of 2021 “right-sizing” themselves to a degree where they each lost more than a quarter of their financial advisers.

Among the mid-sized licensees the latest Wealth Data analysis pointed to growth on the part of Oreana, Centrepoint and Count but noted that small licensees continued to be a growth driver.

What the data confirms is that the area once thought of as likely to be a driver for the exponential growth in financial planning – the accountants limited licensing regime – is now the area of greatest loss.

According to Wealth Data’s Colin Williams it was the area hardest hit in per centage terms was the Accounting – Limited Advice (mostly advice limited to SMSF down 36.31% and  expected to deteriorate further. The sector also saw 121 licensees close and none commenced.

This compares to fully-licensed accountants providing holistic advice which Willaims said had held up best amongst the advice sectors, declining by just 5.95% but nonetheless growing by 15 licensees with just eight closing.

Financial Planning, the largest sector, suffered a loss of (-1,652) advisers or (-12.91%, according to Wealth Data.

“This sector is in some ways a story of ‘large versus small’. The only real growth is the number of new licensees with 131 licensees opening and 47 closing – virtually all new licensees being small licensees (less than 20 advisers). “

“While some of the large licensee owners who operate in this sector suffered heavy losses. For example, dashboard 4 shows Insignia Group (IOOF) down (-31.35%) and AMP group down (-26,21%). Their losses are much greater than the total loss of (-12.91%) for the sector and their combined loss of 964 advisers, represents more than half the losses across the sector.”

Key Movements noted by Wealth Data:

• Net Change of advisers (-603) for this reporting period
• Net change for the month of December, 2021 (-806)
• Net Change for the year of 2021 (-2,930)