Industry

Advisers still place a lot of emphasis on historical performance and fees when they sum up the value of a fund manager, but it’s the thinking behind their investment process that really matters.

Despite a unique value proposition and some notable backers, wealth admin platform OpenInvest finds itself once again looking for capital. “We’ve had mixed results,” says founder Andrew Varlamos.

The Australian Shareholders’ Association and the Australian Investors Association have agreed to amalgamate in the new year, seeking to grow their membership and influence as a unified leader in advocacy and education.

While one listed group reported $236K revenue per adviser, another said its advisers brought in $600K each. But the extraordinary delta is more a function of business models than adviser performance, however.

A confluence of factors has seen the life insurance industry lose significant ground across the globe, according to the French multinational. The Australian industry’s own problems are unique, but the broader trend is the same. So is the solution, pundits reckon.

Even when thousands more advisers left the industry in 2022, bringing the cohort down from 28,000 in 2018 to a total of around 17,000, there was still no shortage according to the government’s own skills commission.

AMP’s executive spine has done a remarkable job of arresting the company’s decline, but its refusal to accept the court’s decision that it shortchanged advisers on BOLR deals is an egregious misstep that could put its trust account with those advisers back in the red.

The purchase comes after a turbulent couple of years for Diverger, which was formerly a collection of dealer groups under the Easton Investments banner.

Financial advice practices will find it harder to grow and scale their businesses in an increasingly tech-driven world if they aren’t making smart technology decisions, says Finura’s Peter Worn.

Of the 8,946 practitioner advisers who belonged to either industry group before their April merger, 8,093 have renewed their membership with the merged entity. The FAAA was “very pleased” with the 90 per cent renewal rate, its CEO said, urging stragglers to renew before a grace period ends next month.

The quantum of licensees may be growing, but none of that growth is coming from the big end of town. Advice groups are increasingly eschewing larger groups and pursuing autonomy in the way they run their practice.

A principled approach to advice regulation is clearly the way forward for advisers, Neil Sparks says. But what’s missing in the discussion is how beneficial the Quality of Advice Review output will also be for consumers.