AMP is once again the largest financial advice business as measured by the number of financial advisers, according to Wealth Data.
The research firm’s Colin Williams says that AMP leapfrogged Insignia after WT Financial Group secured the Millennium3 AFSL from Insignia (see: Biggest Advice Firms).
He says the ASIC Financial Adviser Register is still showing Insignia as the M3 owner, however, a formal ASX announcement said the deal completed in the week. Licensees have 30 days to update the FAR.
A Wealth Data graph shows that AMP has 871 advisers, followed by Insignia with 785 while WT Financial Group, with 561 advisers, has moved up one spot to third position. Centrepoint is the fourth largest with 520 advisers.
Williams says both AMP and Insignia have lost a significant number of advisers over recent years.
“To put this into context, when Insignia (then IOOF) announced that they had entered into an agreement with MLC on August 31, 2020, they indicated in their ASX announcement, that they would be the #1 advice business by number of advisers at 1,884.”
Williams also notes that when a deal with licensees completes “…we merge the licensees into the new licensee owner and by default, the new owner also gets the history of movement associated with the licensee.”
The current number of advisers stands at 15,670, a zero net change over the past week.
