The financial advice industry in Australia saw almost 600 advisers leave the sector in the 12 months to 30 June, according to Wealth Data.
The firm’s Colin Williams says in his weekly Financial Adviser Insights that the July 2022 to June 2023 financial year started with 16,183 advisers and closed out at 15,584 – a fall of 3.7% or 599 advisers.
Williams says for perspective, the previous financial year was down by 2,763 advisers or 14.58%.
He notes too that the data should be seen as preliminary as not all licensees would have updated their data as they have 30 days to report.
For the 2022-23 financial year, there were 125 new licensees and 88 closed. In Wealth Data’s Financial Planning business model, it was 102 new licensees and 51 closed
Williams puts the number of “new entrants and current’ at 373, while 1,429 advisers were ‘resigned and ceased’.
“The balance of 457 advisers, between new entrants, ceased advisers and the negative loss of 599, is made up of advisers coming back into advice.”
He says an alternate way to view the loss “…is to take away the new entrants, and this would see a net loss of 972 (599 plus 373) experienced advisers.”