Advisers unregistered for up to 45 days when moving licensees

While licensees have 30 days to de-register a departing adviser or register a new adviser on the ASIC Financial Advisers Register (FAR), the median time it takes for advisers to move between licensees is 45 days, according to recent analysis from Padua WealthData that tracked the moves of 31 advisers.

Lavon Koopelian, data analyst at Padua WealthData, tells Professional Planner the move between licensees can take any time between one week and three months. One of the biggest reasons is the Australian financial services licensee has 30 business days to update the FAR.

Sean Graham, founder and managing director of compliance consultants Assured Support says that when an adviser is not on the FAR, they are not allowed to give advice.

“If they’re not authorised by a licensee or licenced themselves, then they can’t provide financial product advice under the Corporations Act,” Graham tells Professional Planner.

Koopelian says a move often can be quite fast and “sometimes you get them in before they actually move, so they could be at two licensees at the same time”. Other times it can take them up to 30 days.

Usually, the bigger the AFSL the faster the process. Things will move faster when a licensee buys out another licensee or a practice.

“The top 20 or so AFSLs are going to be on top of it. They’ll get it done within a couple of days. But especially the smaller ones, they can take the full month, just because it’s a lot of paperwork for them,” Koopelian says.

Gap between ceasing and starting	Advisers
Less than 1 week	7
1 week to 1 month	5
1 month to 3 months	9
3 months to 1 year	8
More than 1 year	2

Graham says delays may be caused by miscommunication or admin failure between former and new licensee.

“Normally, they coordinate quite well to make sure there’s no breakdown and no client detriment, because while that adviser isn’t authorised, how do their clients get service in that time? It’s in everyone’s interest to try to minimise that.”

In situations where a decision to leave a licensee was not initiated by the adviser themselves – it could be a response to a disciplinary action, for example, or in anticipation of regulatory or legal action – the period off the register may be more protracted because the adviser has not had time to line up a new licensee.

“Normally the authorised rep agreement would require [a licensee] to give adequate notice, which should give someone adequate time to look around, but sometimes it can be immediate,” Graham says.

The licensee taking on a new authorised representative may also want to follow processes and undertake investigations such as police and credit checks, and “verify the capabilities, competence, and character of the adviser”, Graham says.

“Where it might also blow out is if they’re looking. around for a new licensee, and the licensee is checking as to why that termination occurred in the first place,” he says.

“If they’re worried that it might have been for compliance reasons or whatever else, then the new licensee might take more time to make sure that they’re not picking up a risk or a compliance issue or a regulatory matter that they don’t want to bear.

“I suspect it’s probably that apprehension about: well, we need to make sure we do this properly because post-Venture Egg and InterPrac, there’s a lot of apprehension out there and a lot of reasonable fear about regulatory action.”

Padua WealthData says about 50 per cent of advisers move within a week, 30 per cent takes up to three months and 20 per cent may take up to three months. This includes advisers that may be not working for a period of time because they took time off or were on leave.

Although the data is based on 31 advisers, there were 60 advisers appointed last week, 14 new entrants and 12 that moved between licensees under the same owner. There were also three who remain authorised at their previous licensee. Padua WealthData puts those aside when analysing the time it takes to move between licensees.

Padua WealthData shared on 30 October that for the 2026 calendar year, adviser numbers increased by 151.

Growth and losses across AFSLs

After moves within the AFSLs, Entireti and Akumin have added three advisers in total. Rhombus Enterprises also added three: two new advisers, and one from Highview Wealth Solutions.

Another six licensees were up by two advisers: Count, Cobalt Advisers, Elston Group, Politis Investment Strategies, PSK Group and a new licensee that was formed by two advisers.

Meanwhile, Macquarie Group was down by three, and none of the advisers had been appointed elsewhere.

Evans Dixon, National Tax & Accountants Association and Securitas Financial Group each lost two advisers.

From 29 November 2025 to 29 November 2026, Picture Wealth Group added 32 advisers in total, the biggest move recorded by Padua WealthData. Lifespan came second, having added 21 advisers. Centrepoint, Ord Minnett Group and FSSSP Financial Services each had an increase of 13 advisers and Bell Financial increased by 12.

For the same 12 months, Count was down by 66, affected by Merit Wealth which was made up of “restricted” advisers (accountants) offering SMSF advice only.

WT Financial was down by 22 and Daintree Topco by 12.