Advisers numbers round out Q3 with double-digit growth

Adviser numbers have reached 15,442 for the week ending 25 September on the back of ongoing positive growth almost every week since the start of the new financial year, raking in a net gain of 269 since the start of July.

This has been further bolstered by 12 back-to-back weeks of double-digit new entrants, for a total of 187 since the week ending 3 July, including 15 this week.

Notably, Colin Williams, data manager at Padua Wealth Data, said: “It took some time for advice firms to start hiring new advisers under the rules that began on 1 January 2019. Since 2022, 1,693 advisers have been appointed, with 1,515 still active on the ASIC Financial Advisers Register (FAR). This means about 10.5 per cent of new advisers since 2022 have left the register.”

Digging deeper, Williams explained that the financial planning model of practice has hired the most new entrants since 2022, with 1,071 active advisers appointed over this time, accounting for 12.5 per cent of all advisers operating under this business model.

Investment advice model businesses also make up a considerable portion, taking up 349 active new advisers, while super funds have just 41 active new advisers.

Looking at the weekly movements, some 59 advisers were active in appointments and resignations, while one new licensee commenced and two ceased.

Meanwhile, this week saw three licensees with net gains of two each, including WT Financial Group which appointed four new advisers, including three new entrants, and lost two.

Entireti and Akumin Group also picked up two new entrants, while United Super saw one adviser return after a break and another join from Australian Financial Planning Group for a net gain of two.

A long tail of 34 licensees were all up by net one adviser each, including Viridian, Rhombus, Phillip Alexander, and Findex.

Notably, this saw fewer losses among licensees, with Count Group down by three, all of whom switched to Paragem. A short tail of some 12 licensees were all down by net one adviser each, including Capstone, Wealth Spectrum, and both this week’s ceased licensees.