Fresh losses wipe out wins as adviser numbers dip again

Following a net gain of 18 advisers last week, the profession has lost 18 advisers in the week to 1 February, with 33 licensee owners experiencing net losses, Wealth Data figures have shown.

In total, 27 licensee owners had total gains of 43 advisers, while 33 licensee owners lost a total of 50 advisers.

The largest losses were experienced by Count and Diverger, with a shared loss of 11, following Diverger’s announcement last week that its shareholders had approved the merger of the two licensees.

First announced in September, the merger will create the third-largest licensee in Australia behind AMP and Insignia.

Speaking at the time, Count said: “The combination of these highly complementary businesses will create a leading financial services provider with substantial increases in scale across Count’s existing wealth, accounting and service division.

“Count has identified approximately $3 million in cost synergies and a number of new revenue growth opportunities to be delivered through a rigorous integration and benefit realisation program.”

This week, Count lost six advisers – two from Affinia and four from Count – and Diverger lost five advisers – four at GPS Wealth and one at Merit Wealth.

At the end of 2023, according to Wealth Data, Count had 367 advisers, a gain of 88 advisers during the year, and Diverger had 379 advisers which was a drop of 22. However, it’s believed that Diverger has some 200 holistic advisers.

According to Wealth Data, six licensee owners were down by two each including Crown Wealth, Castleguard Trust, Fitzpatricks, and Fortnum and then there was a tail of 25 licensee owners down by one including Bell Financial Group and Perpetual.

Colin Williams, founder of Wealth Data, said: “The net numbers are down by (-18), wiping out the exact gains from last week. We did see more resignations backdated into the previous year (and beyond). In total 99 advisers affected this week and four new entrants commenced.”

Looking at licensees which gained advisers, Connie Walker (Focused Financial Advice) was up by 11 advisers with the majority still current at Crown Wealth. Insignia was up by three including two new entrants and Centrepoint was also up by three advisers.

KDM Financial and Connectus Wealth were both up by two and a tail of 22 licensee owners were up by net one each, including Spark Partnership and Findex.

There were four new entrants this week compared to 16 in the previous week.