In a statement released to the market on Thursday, Centrepoint Alliance said its gross revenue had increased by 11 per cent over the financial year to $131 million, with a 61 per cent increase in advice fees over the 12 months to June.
The group’s gross profit had increased by $1.1 million, which Centrepoint said was a reflection of its strong growth in adviser numbers over the year.
The group onboarded 79 new advisers over the 12 months to June, bringing its total licensed adviser numbers to 317, a 6 per cent increase compared with the average market decrease of 13 per cent.
Centrepoint also said it had retained 83 per cent of advice firms following its move to a new pricing structure from July 2019.
The group’s chief executive, Angus Benbow, said while conditions over the last six months in particular had been challenging, opportunities had also arisen due to increased demand for advice from consumers.
“FY20 has been a busy and successful year for Centrepoint Alliance. We are particularly proud to have delivered recurring growth which has accelerated in H2 FY20, providing tailwind momentum heading into 2021,” Mr Benbow said.
“Through our strategic transformation we have developed an increasingly attractive suite of services, which has empowered us to attract new advisers to the Centrepoint Alliance community at a record rate, despite the financial advice market shrinking overall.
“Our areas of focus for the year ahead are to continue to attract high quality licensed and self-licensed firms to the Centrepoint Alliance community, enhance the value of our scalable service platform, and actively explore industry consolidation opportunities.”
I always enjoy reading these reports to get a clearer picture of the reality of this industry. Always plenty of gold in them.
A cheeky glance at the remuneration report makes it clear why the CEO of this firm – and five of his suddenly efficient and active mates – slapped together that letter resisting the FPAs individual licensing proposal.
Also enjoyable is the fine print on page 6 of their FY2020 results presentation where they quote licensed adviser fees at $50k, but self-licensed fees at $20k.
Or on page 26 where they declare 7,006 CPD hours were logged. Across the 300 advisers they opened with, though, that’s only 23.35 hrs each.
I’m sure they’re a good operation as a business, but I still can’t see anything in this report that explains why they should have a say in the merits (or otherwise) of individual licensing – surely they’re too conflicted to be taken seriously?
How many commentators could their possibly be that are both informed and unconflicted? I think they’re entitled to an opinion.
Oh, they’re absolutely entitled to an opinion.
But I wish the press would stop pretending these licensees don’t have a huge vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
Maybe then they’d start asking these licensees tougher questions and get them to start justifying some of their opinions.