Resumption of advice licensees on the rise

Colin Williams, the founder of the research house, anticipates a growing trend in the resumption of financial advice licensees throughout the year.

“Licensees recommencing have been a common theme in 2024,” Mr Williams said.

“The current crop seems to be firms who have reappointed an adviser. Some don’t appear to be full service financial advice firms but need an adviser to do some of their work," he clarified.

In the week to 8 February, there was a “quiet” net rise of two financial advisers, taking the total number of advisers to 15,648.

Overall, during the week, 36 licensee owners had net gains of 52 advisers, while an equal number of licensee owners suffered a net loss of 44 advisers.

One of the newly commenced licensees was formerly a practice of Hillross, AMP, and commenced with five advisers, Wealth Data revealed.

Among the bigger licensees, AMP lost six advisers but gained two, while Insignia lost four and gained one.

In the calendar year to date, the industry has grown by 36 advisers.

Last week, Adviser Rating’s new report revealed that there were three departures for every new adviser in the last quarter of 2023.

Namely, 264 exits were recorded in the period between October and December, suggesting that correcting the balance could be an “ongoing challenge” for the profession, even in the presence of new advice models.

Adviser Ratings put the final 2023 adviser count at 15,634, with the largest cohort or 4,193, operating in one of the 1,518 privately owned licensees that boast one to 10 advisers.

Just 220 advisers or 1.4 per cent of the total adviser count work within five banks – compared to 5,256 back in December 2017 – while 592 advisers are employed by industry superannuation funds.