Adviser numbers ‘ticking along quite well’ as gains double in FY24–25

For the week of 10 July (the first full week recorded for FY25), the financial year (FY) net gains stood at 122 advisers. Since then, this number has doubled to stand at FY net gains of 244 advisers as of 18 September.

So far, 104 advisers have joined the industry during the 11-week period.

This is far quicker than momentum in the previous financial year which took until April 2025, a total of 10 months, to double. At the same time in the previous financial year, only 41 advisers had joined the industry and the FY net change had risen from 121 advisers to 175.

Interestingly, the growth is not necessarily being driven by new entrants, with 172 new entrants having joined since the start of this financial year, 11 fewer than in the same period in FY24. New entrant numbers have been strong nonetheless, with every week this FY consistently reporting double-digit gains.

Colin Williams, data manager at Padua Wealth Data, said: “The financial year-to-date is going pretty well; losses in the accounting-limited advice model have slowed as there are simply a lot less advisers in this model. The financial planning model is ticking along quite well.”

Looking at weekly movements, this week to 18 September saw a net gain of one adviser but 11 new entrants, indicating 10 experienced advisers left the industry during the week. One new licensee commenced and three licensees ceased, all of whom only had one adviser at the time of their closure.

Spark Partnership was up by two advisers, with one joining from Infinity Advisor Australia and one joining from Canberra-based Allegra Wealth. Macquarie Group was also up by two advisers, both of whom were new entrants.

A long tail of 57 licensees were up by one adviser, including Rhombus Advisory, Insignia Financial, and Entireti & Akumin Group.

In terms of losses, Morgans Group was down by two, and Padua Wealth Data noted both of them had been new entrants earlier in the year.

Some 26 licensee owners were down by one each, including superannuation fund Australian Retirement Trust, Sequoia, and WT Financial Group.