5 takeaways from a year of adviser movements

Money Management has collated five takeaways from the weekly adviser movements over the last 12 months. 

Each week, Wealth Data collates the weekly movements of adviser firms and whether there has been gains or losses.

It is important to bear in mind that licensees have 30 days to report changes so some may have been slow to report adviser movements or ceased advisers.

Total numbers

At the start of the FY22-23 financial year, there were 16,183 advisers in the market after a tough FY21–22 that saw a 14 per cent downturn. 

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By the end of FY22–23, the total number stood at 15,584 that was a change of 3.7 per cent. While there were still departures, the overall downturn of 599 advisers was far improved on the previous financial year that saw more than 2,000 advisers leave.

Movements

Some 17 weeks of the year were positive with net gains while 32 were negative and reported a net loss. August and June were the worst months with each week in those months reporting a net loss. On the other hand, there were zero months that reported four consecutive weeks of gains. The best months were July and April that saw positive gains for three out of four weeks. 

There was one week (week to 16 March) that saw zero movement as any gains were cancelled out by departures.

The three weeks covering the Christmas and New Year period were collated into one, which saw a net loss of 10.

Largest movements

The largest departure was seen in the week to 29 September when 172 advisers departed that Wealth Data attributed to many advisers falling off the Financial Advisers Register (FAR) for failing the financial advice exam.

There have been two exams held in July and August that were sat by 628 candidates, but only 52 per cent of these candidates passed. 

This led to an overall net loss of 149 during the week as there were also gains of 23 advisers. 

The best week was seen in the week to 9 February when it reported a net gain of 33 advisers after 25 licensee owners saw net gains of 53 advisers. This was due to a significant number of advisers who exited in the prior week transitioning to new licensees and an increase of eight provisional advisers. 

Licensee changes

During the year, 125 new licensees commenced and 88 closed. In the financial planning business model specifically, there were 102 licensees that commenced and 51 that closed.

The strongest growth was seen by a new licensee MBS Advice that gained 18 followed by PSK that gained 16. The least growth was jointly held by AMP Group and Insignia that both lost 136.

Provisional advisers/new entrants

There were 373 new entrants during the year with the most joining in the week to 8 September when 25 provisional advisers joined, linked to passing the July/August financial advice exams.

In the week to 30 March, Wealth Data changed its criteria from provisional adviser to new entrant that is defined as an adviser’s first appointment date on the FAR. In the week to 6 April, there were 24 new entrants including two each at Bell Financial Group, Evans Dixon, and Blue Rock 2020. However, it only contributed to an overall net gain of one in that week as there were 23 experienced advisers who ceased. 

Pleasingly, there were zero weeks that have no new entrants although three weeks (weeks to 1 December, 2 March, and 15 June) saw only one new entrant come on board.