The industry super fund s financial advice subsidiary has been hit with a $20 million penalty for charging over 25,000 customers more than $50 million in fees for no service.
Only 50 financial advisers joined the financial advice industry in the year to September, as Rainmaker analysis shows that the total population has dwindled to 19,238.
At the same time, 48 groups posted declining numbers of advisers and in total saw a loss of 66 adviser roles during the week.
AMP Financial Planning traditionally accounted for the biggest loss and saw a departure of five roles and was followed by three groups – Aware Financial Services, Skylight Financial Solutions and Synchron – which each saw a departure of three advisers. On top of that, a further eight groups lost two adviser roles while 36 licensees reported a loss of one adviser role.
According to data from HFS Consulting, there were also two small licensees for which the reported losses in advisers drove the overall number of roles to zero and they had effectively closed.