In a week that saw nine new entrants, the net number of advisers dipped by five, indicating that 16 more experienced advisers dropped off the ASIC Financial Adviser Register this week.

Only the one new licensee commenced and two ceased. A total of 67 advisers affected this week.

This week we also look at the large license owners, who all of a sudden, are dominating the growth since the start of this financial year.

Key adviser movements for this period

• Net change of advisers (-6)
• Current number of advisers 15,441
• Net change calendar 2025 YTD (-31)
• Net change financial YTD (2025/26) +269
• 19 licensee owners had net gains of 24 advisers
• 21 licensee owners had net losses for (-29) advisers
• One new licensee and two ceased
• 9 new entrants
• Number of advisers active in this period, appointed / resigned: 67.

Growth - licensee owners

• Entireiti & Akumin Group up by four. This included gaining three new entrants, one each at Charter, Fortnum Private and Akumin. Also, one adviser joining Fortnum Private as a Provisional Adviser after a break of several years. Another two advisers joined the group after long breaks from advice. They lost two advisers, one to FF Solutions and the other yet to be appointed.
• FMD Financial up by three, all advisers switching across from Alliance Wealth owed by Centrepoint Group
• A tail of 17 licensee owners up by net one including Lifespan, Rhombus, and Findex.

Losses - licensee owners

• Centrepoint Group down by four, as mentioned above, three switched to FMD, the remaining adviser is yet to be appointed elsewhere
• Morgan Stanley also down by four and none are showing as being appointed elsewhere
• Endeavor Asset Management down by two, neither showing as appointed elsewhere
• Fiducian Financial Group also down by two and again, neither showing as being appointed elsewhere
• 17 Licensee owners down by one each including Capstone, WT Financial Group and ART Group services. The two licensees that ceased (gone to zero advisers) both lost one adviser each.

Have large financial advice groups found their mojo?

Since the 2018 Financial Services Royal Commission and its 2019 report, big licensee owners have felt the pain of losing so many financial advisers. Pre the Royal Commission, there was the ‘big six’ advice firms, these being the four major banks, plus AMP and Insignia. The four major banks left the advice business first, followed Insignia who exited ‘self-employed advice’ and only keeping a small number of in-house advisers. And most recently, AMP existed advice through the amalgamation with Entireiti.

The fall in adviser numbers hit all advice firms after the FASEA Exam commenced (now called the Financial Adviser Exam), especially large groups because of their size. We also saw a surge in small ‘micro AFSLs’ formed by advisers who mostly worked for large groups.

In the new financial year, there has been a shift. Among the top ten growing firms, the top three, WT Financial Group (+22 advisers), Count Limited (+15), and Rhombus Advisory (+12), each have over 475 advisers. Lifespan is fifth (+10, with 294 advisers), Entireiti & Akumin Group (+8) are seventh and are the largest with 1,106 advisers. Insignia (+6) is tenth with 215 advisers.

On the least-growth side, only two major groups appear the top ten. Sequoia lost eight (305 advisers total) and Capstone lost five (220 advisers).

There were 25 new licensees (all but one with fewer than five advisers), which is marginally higher than the number of ceased licensees which is at 23.

The major growth firms for the new financial year is dominated by large groups.