Up to 2,000 advisers may return to profession

As many as 2000 financial advisers may decide to return to the profession after having exited over recent years, according to analysis conducted by WealthData.

Their return will be premised on the Government’s exposure draft legislation round the “experienced pathway” and degree recognition passing relatively unchanged through both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

According to WealthData principal, Colin Williams approximately 4,700 may be in a position to re-enter the profession but it is likely that only between 1,000 and 2,000 may actually ultimately decide to do so because of the opportunity being provided by the Government.

Williams said he had premised his estimate on some 13,480 advisers having ceased since the start of 2019 and, of these, some 6,500 having a degree of some description

He said that after removing advisers who were mostly tied to restricted AFSLs such as accountants who could only offer SMSF administration advice the number became 4,950and after removing all those who commenced before 1990 the number dropped to 4,741

Williams said he therefore estimated that approximately 4,700 or so may be in a position to give financial planning another go.

“However, if we refine the numbers one more time with a last ceased date of 2021/2/3 the number becomes 2,055 and out of this amount we estimate that approximately 1,000 have already passed the FASEA exam,” he said

“Based on the numbers, I would estimate the number of advisers that could consider coming back is somewhere between one thousand and two thousand.”

Williams said the numbers needed to be weighed against the attractiveness of re-entering the profession in circumstances where financial advisers had rarely been busier.

Williams said that while the focus out of the release of the exposure draft had been on advisers who can now remain as an advisers without having a degree, there were a lot of ‘advisers’ who were very well qualified but for reasons best known to FASEA at the time, their qualifications were not recognised.

“The exposure draft indicates that advisers (old and new) can ask the minster to assess their qualifications which may have previously not been approved for ‘technical’ reasons,” he said.

Williams said that he was someone who had been down the track of having his qualifications unrecognised under the old FASEA regime.

“It did appear that some very good qualifications were being discriminated against for reasons of age or ‘not quite’ having the necessary subjects included,” he said.

“The cost in time and money did not warrant recommencing studies. The announcement makes it much easier for well qualified advisers to return and for new entrants to make a start.”