Number of AFSLs plateaus: Rainmaker

At end September 2025 there were 15,446 ASIC-registered financial advisers in Australia, according to the Rainmaker Financial Adviser report.

Over the year to September, there was a decrease of 71 advisers, with 10 leaving the industry in the September quarter.

The total number of advice licensees rose by 0.8% during the 12-month period but fell 0.4% in the September quarter. This results in there now being 1864 AFSLs operating in Australia.

Entireti is Australia's largest financial advice group with 918 registered advisers. However, this is down 98 advisers through the 12 months to September 2025.

Count is in second place with 596, down by 79 in the year to September 2025.

The groups that increased their number of advisers were Spark Advisors Australia (up 46%), Koda Capital (38%) and SGN Financial (23%) in the year to September 2025.

The small size AFSLs in the size bands of one to two, three to 10 and 11 to 50 collectively increased their total number of advisers by 4% over the 12 months.

The fastest falling were AFSLs with 51-100 advisers. Their adviser numbers decreased in aggregate by 13.7% over the 12 months, the Rainmaker report found.

During the September quarter, the only two size groups that grew were 11-50 and 101-250. Together they added 309 advisers, while all other size AFSL declined.

Registered advisers operating through super fund-owned AFSLs rose 1.1% over the 12 months.

"AFSL numbers seem to have plateaued just under 1900. The last time AFSL numbers were above 2000 was in March 2022," the report said.