Adviser loyalty remains high at CBA
The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) commands the second highest level of loyalty from advisers despite the scandals besetting the firm, research from Einsights showed.
An analysis of the entire dataset from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) showed that the CBA had the highest level of resilience, as it managed to retain 55 per cent of its advisers during the study period of 2005-2015.
Macquarie led the pack, retaining 57 per cent of its advisers.
But Suncorp ranked last, retaining only 15.3 per cent of its advisers.
Founder and chief executive of Einsights, Sandeep Rao, said: "The abysmally low number for Suncorp perhaps reflects the bleeding once they decided to exit the Advice business".
The research showed an overall increase in the number of advisers switching licensees in the recent past, particularly since 2015.
Of all those advisers who became non-aligned in the study period, 10.25 per cent were from AMP, followed by the National Australia Bank (NAB) at six per cent.
Non-aligned licensees saw a strong growth in 2014 of 13.8 per cent, with 5.79 per cent of ANZ advisers moving to a non-aligned group, while 5.09 per cent of IOOF advisers also switched to a non-aligned licensee.
Westpac saw the strongest uptick with a growth of 16.4 per cent, while ANZ saw a 14.2 per cent growth, and the CBA saw a 9.8 per cent growth.
In terms of the average tenure of advisers who were on the books of the firms, Macquarie still led the pack, with an average adviser tenure of 8.3 years, followed by CBA at 6.13 years, while AMP had a strong average tenure of 5.5 years despite having a large adviser base.
AUTHOR
Malavika Santhebennur
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