Research firm Wealth Data’s latest analysis of financial adviser movements offered a positive note with 13 new provisional advisers appointed for the week.
Writing in his weekly report Wealth Data’s Colin Williams says adviser numbers were down by 20 in the week, but “…the loss was cushioned by 13 new Provisional Advisers commencing this week which was good to see.”
Williams explained to Riskinfo that the reporting can at times throw a few curve balls especially in January due to holidays (and this year Covid) and then again in July as movements are often dominated by changes coinciding with the financial year.
However, he says, the week-on-week of 13 appointments “…was a strong number, especially given the numbers that were flowing out.”
When Williams breaks this down by actual dates of being appointed, the first four weeks of reporting show that in that in the first week one provisional adviser was appointed and weeks two, three and four each saw five PAs appointed.
Williams says it would appear that some licensees reported their new PAs a couple of weeks after actually appointing them.
In the graph below the blue line shows actual appointments each week and the orange line are PAs who are still current as a PA.
Williams says that “…overall, there is no doubt that we have seen better numbers of PAs since June 2021.”
Still Expecting Adviser Numbers to Reduce
Williams also writes in his weekly report that the net loss of 20 advisers for the week took the net number of advisers down to 17,601 but Wealth Data is still expecting this number to reduce further.
He reiterated that the firm suspects that some major licensees are yet to fully report their adviser movement with regards to FASEA exam requirements (see: Many Licensees Yet to Report on Adviser Numbers).
“We also believe that many advisers that are to be taken off the ASIC FAR, work in small licensees that will also be closed. Potentially a process that has slowed the reporting to ASIC, along with holiday and issues caused by Covid,” he says.
