May marked the industry dipping below 17,000 advisers for the first time since the close of the Hayne Royal Commission.
Despite over 12,000 advisers having departed the industry since January 2019, research from CoreData found adviser salaries have stagnated, despite reports of a boost in the “war for talent” after the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, RIVA Recruitment director Fabian Ruggieri said firms were willing to pay a 15 per cent premium for female financial advisers.
While not single-handedly replenishing the industry, Kaplan hosted its first in person graduation since the start of the pandemic.
Gadens and Lawcadia released research in conjunction with CoreData about breach reporting. The key finding was simple: the industry has no idea what it is doing.
The research found 74 per cent of advisers employed in practices that don’t have their own AFSL, rated their understanding of the breach reporting requirements as ‘moderate’ or ‘low’.
“Advisers don’t know what they’re doing with this regime and that’s a pretty big risk when you consider the personal consequences and the licensee consequences that can come from it,” Gadens partner Liam Hennessy said.
Cracking the Koda
Koda announced its deal with US private equity firm Emigrant Partners, which saw the latter acquire a 25 per cent stake in one of Australia’s pre-eminent high-net-worth advice businesses.
“We knew we had the right model – independent, conflict-free advice delivered by staff and partners who owned the firm – but we knew that to scale further we had to do it differently,” Koda co-founder Paul Heath said.
Encore Advisory Group executive chair Tom Reddacliff noted the Koda opportunity is unique and other advice practices should focus on their own proposition if they want to attract capital.
Changing of the guard
The Labor party, led by Anthony Albanese, won the election in late May. Then shadow financial services minister Stephen Jones was confident of a win and expected he wouldn’t need any help from the crossbench.
“I haven’t [had discussions with independents] and you shouldn’t be worried about that,” Jones said. “It’s going to be easier for Anthony Albanese to get to 76 seats in Parliament at the end of this election than it will be for Scott Morrison.”
Although he had proposed the education carve-out, Jones claimed he would still be a proponent of professionalism in the industry.
“That’s been part of the flak that has been making around the broader industry the last couple of months but that’s okay,” Jones said.
“You have to make decisions and use your judgement and try to make the best decision. Whenever you do that there will be people who disagree.”
