Adviser distribution data uncovers regional disparity

According to the latest figures from Wealth Data, the spread of advisers who are based in or out of each state capital central business district (CBD) varies greatly from one business model to the other.

Overall, ACT advisers led the charge, with 58 per cent residing in its CBD, while NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia showed reasonably similar percentages, ranging from 29 to 34 per cent.

A closer examination of this distribution according to each business model revealed that investment advice across states typically has more than half of its advisers based in the CBD, while financial planners are more scattered.

Namely, all states had less than half of their financial planners residing in the CBD, with Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia all below 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, the superannuation funds model, made up of advisers who are linked to the industry and other large super funds, showed heavier concentrations within state CBDs, with all states except for NSW exceeding 70 per cent.

Wealth Data founder Colin Williams attributed this to a concentration of advisers, many being telephone-based, co-located in the CBD offices of super funds.

Contrary to Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones’ suggestion of the adviser count potentially reaching 30,000 through super funds, Mr Williams pointed out that currently only 732 advisers out of the almost 16,000 in Australia are directly linked to super funds.

“For such growth to occur, it would almost certainly require a much larger portion of advisers to be on the ground where their (super fund) members are based,” he reasoned.

Adviser landscape this week

Looking at Wealth Data figures for the week ended 20 July, there was a net change of zero in adviser numbers, but 71 advisers were involved in resignations or appointments.

Overall, the number of advisers currently sits at 15,707, with the net change for this calendar year to date still sitting in the red, with a loss of 90.

However, adviser numbers as of the new financial year are up by 134, with Mr Williams noting that the beginning of FY23–24 was particularly active.

“Only three days into it, the most notable change is 11 new licensees and a positive start of 115 advisers,” he said earlier this month.

On the back of this, nine new entrants came into the scene this week.

Meanwhile, 24 licensees had net gains of 30 advisers, alongside one new licensee having started up.

Among them, Count Group was up by three, with Count Financial appointing four advisers, three of whom came form Fitzpatricks, with the addition of one new entrant.

Four licensee owners were also up two advisers each, including Sequoia, who now have net gains of 17 for the new financial year. For TFG Australia, both advisers hailed from FYG Planners, while My Plan Financial Planning nabbed both of theirs from Alliance Wealth.

Overall, 19 licensee owners were up by one, including Shartru, AMP Group, Minchin Moore, Boyce, and the lone new licensee.

On the other side of the coin, 17 licensees lost 30 advisers, with Insignia leading with a net loss of eight.

FSSP Financial (Aware Super) was down three advisers this week, while BlueRock and Capstone both showed a loss of two, with the latter stemming from an adviser commencing his own AFSL.

Twelve licensees were all down by one adviser, including Ord Minnett, WT Financial Group, and Diverger.