Financial Services Partners (FSP) has claimed the number one spot for most advisers gained over the first six months of 2008, the IFA Dealer Group Survey shows.
FSP added 40 advisers to its network during the six months to June 30, bringing the dealer group's total to 185 planners.
The boost in adviser numbers follows the integration of Tandem Financial Advice into FSP, after ING bought the firm for $50 million in December last year.
Lonsdale Financial Group also made a substantial gain, with 39 advisers joining the firm over the first half of 2008, to bring its total to 307.
"Our recruitment strategy is core to what we do," Lonsdale chief executive Mario Modica says.
As a result, Lonsdale has a dedicated recruitment manager who is solely required to identify opportunities in the marketplace.
"The quality of the network and our ability to truly deliver our service is also something that attracts planners to Lonsdale and it's interesting how many firms ring us and want to join the firm based on referrals."
Lonsdale's growth in adviser numbers is also a measure of the group's success in growing the firms they already have onboard, Modica adds.
"We don't want to be a larger dealer group; we want to have that personal touch to what we do," he says.
"So our business plan is to grow to 120 firms over the next few years and that's where we'd max out quite frankly."
Wealthsure Financial Services added 33 advisers in the first six months of 2008, to reach a total of 234 planners.
The independently-owned dealer group has experienced an influx of institutional advisers over recent years, according to Wealthsure chief executive Darren Pawski.
"Our recruiting strategy is more about advisers who don't want to be product mandated and they want to actually have the flexibility of using what's best in the marketplace," Pawski says.
"So we're finding we've got a lot of advisers coming to us from places like the larger institutionally-owned groups."
Wealthsure is confident it can reach a target of 250 advisers by the end of 2008, he says.
"I think we're probably pretty close to that now. We've had another practice manager join us in July so we've put on another 16 advisers since June 30," he says.
"What we're trying to do is use the growth and size of the group to be able to provide our advisers with better services and software."
UBS Wealth Management gained 14 advisers during the first half of 2008 to reach a total of 134 planners.
The dealer group's recruitment strategy is more about selecting behaviours rather than behaviour modification, according to UBS Wealth Management Australia managing director Clark Morgan.
"We're quite selective and we're not about just filling out the numbers. But when we find people that we think actually fit our mould we chase them and we're very keen to get them on board," Morgan says.
"It's very much about the culture. It's certainly not about the revenue and it's not about the clients. It's about getting the right behaviours and we think once we've done that the rest of it just falls into place."
The number of advisers interested in joining the firm has been quite high, Morgan adds.
"We're actually talking to probably as many advisers right now as we have done in the last 18 months in any single point in time," he says.
UBS's growth strategy does not adhere to strict targets, he says. "We've found that having targets means that you tend to manage to the target," he says.
