There's never any shortage of dealer group activity for IFA to report, from South Australia-based Mawson voting on its proposed takeover by ING to financial advisory group Madison making a bigger footprint on the landscape with its purchase of Grosvenor. And BT-owned Magnitude has hit the $1 billion mark in funds under administration (FUA), just over a year after launching. This issue features our 2007 Dealer Group Survey, which compares dealer groups in terms of planner numbers and funds under administration (FUA).
Professional Investment Services (PIS) has held the top spot and increased its lead over AMP Financial Planning (AMPFP) in adviser numbers over the past 12 months. However, AMPFP has held its ground for second place, followed by Count, which is steadily growing. Millennium3 Financial Services' adviser numbers swelled by 6 per cent, 2 per cent higher than the industry total, and Lonsdale expanded by a whopping 12 per cent. Australian Financial Services was in a league of its own with a 45 per cent swelling in numbers.
Of the top three, each offers equity to planners, which may explain some attraction, as does Westpac Financial Planning, whose numbers moved marginally. It was mainly the banks that did not offer equity - although Millennium3 does not offer equity yet performed well in attracting more planners. MPFP has almost twice as many certified financial planners as PIS, despite the latter's greater number of advisers overall. AMPFP also has more than twice the FUA of PIS. When it comes to FUA, familiar names were highly visible in the top 20 advisers with the highest FUA. The feature begins on page 25.
