Adviser numbers jump in March quarter: Rainmaker

The March quarter saw the highest number of financial advisers join the sector in the last seven years to reach 15,982, according to Rainmaker Information.

During the three months, 664 advisers joined the industry, according to the latest Rainmaker Financial Adviser report.

Year on year, the profession saw a 0.3% increase in the number of ASIC-registered financial advisers - a net 51 increase in adviser numbers.

During the year, 1274 financial advisers registered with a new AFSL. The five AFSLs that attracted the most advisers were Alliance Wealth, InterPrac, Lifespan Financial Planning, Synchron Advice and RI Advice.

On the other hand, AMP Financial Planning, which is now part of Entireti's Akumin, Merit Wealth and Madison Financial Group had the biggest falls in adviser numbers. They each lost 53, 48 and 28 advisers respectively.

Last June, Madison Financial's parent company Clime completed its divestment of the advice group to Infocus Wealth Management. At March end, Infocus was the 10^th largest non-aligned dealer group with 148 advisers.

The top three were Alliance Wealth with 351, Count Financial with 331 and Lifespan with 289.

Overall, Insignia Financial is Australia's largest financial advice brand with 1122 registered advisers. However, the group saw 53 advisers exit during the 12 months to March. AMPFP is in second place with 864.

Meanwhile, the fastest-growing groups were Lifespan and Centrepoint Alliance, which each experiencing growth of 26% in adviser numbers.

Morgans Financial is the largest provider of superannuation advice with 375 advisers followed by Ord Minnett's 227, JBWere's 172, and Shaw and Partners' 132.

Aware Super's Aware Financial Services is the biggest among the super funds with an adviser network of 111, followed by UniSuper with 80.