Financial adviser numbers fell by 58 net, even though 25 new advisers joined the ASIC Financial Adviser Register — meaning 83 more experienced advisers left. Three licensees started and six ceased.

It was a busy week of change with a total of 193 advisers affected by appointments or resignations. Much greater that a typical week which is normally in the range of 60 to 80.

There is an expectation of significant losses as we move into 2026.

Key adviser movements for this period

• Net change of advisers (-58)
• Current number of advisers 15,373
• Net change calendar 2025 YTD (-99)

• Net change 2025 YTD of +93 when excluding licensees that provide mostly limited SMSF advice

• Net change financial YTD (2025/26) +202

• Net change financial YTD +256 when excluding licensees that provide mostly limited SMSF advice

• 43 licensee owners had net gains of 57 advisers
• 66 licensee owners had net losses for (-107) advisers
• 3 new licensees (1 recommenced), and 6 ceased
• 25 new entrants
• 193 advisers affected by appointments / resignations

Growth – licensee owners

• Three licensee owners up by net three each:

• Partners Wealth Group, two advisers switching from Fourthree Pty Ltd and one new entrant
• Centrepoint Group, with one new entrant and an adviser each from Interprac and Australia National Investment Group
• Centaur Gold Coast (Abundant Wealth Partners), all three advisers were authorised to Focused Financial Advice, AFSL Num 286219 which was suspended by ASIC on November 28, 2025.

• Eight groups up by two each

• United Super, both advisers coming back into advice after long breaks
• Thi Quynh Trang Nguyen (Consilium Advice Pty Ltd), while showing up by two advisers, one adviser was ceased only to return after a few days. The other adviser switched from Fintegrity Wealth Advisers
• Modoras Pty Ltd, both being new entrants
• Jedi Ventures (Gatekeeper 77), both advisers are still authorised at Finstyle Planning Solutions
• FSSSP Financial (Aware Super), one coming back into advice after a gap of a few years and the other also back in advice after a gap of several months
• Brian Trevor Sellick (IWM Advisors), one new entrant and the other still showing as being authorised at Sentry Advice. There appears to have been some backdating of adviser details
• BDO Private Wealth, both new entrants
• ANZ Banking Group, both advisers coming back into advice after long breaks.

• A long tail of 32 licensee owners up by net one each including all three new licensees, plus Insignia Group, Guideway and Bell Financial.

Losses – licensee owners

• NTAA (SMSF Advisers Network) down by 19, losing 21 advisers, not appointed elsewhere and re hiring two advisers who had breaks of several months
• Count Limited down by six, losing three advisers each at Count Financial and Merit Wealth. GPS Wealth appointed two advisers and also had two resign. None of the advisers who resigned from the Count licensees have been appointed elsewhere to date.
• Entireti & Akumin Group down by five, with three appointments including one new entrant and eight losses. Of the eight losses only one has been appointed elsewhere to date.
• Three groups down by three each:

• Morgans Group with four resignations, not appointed elsewhere and one new entrant appointed
• MWL Group (MW Planning) who had their AFSL suspended by ASIC on December 11, 2025
• Robert Negri (Wisdom Wealth), all three not appointed elsewhere

• Eight licensee owners down by two each including, Fiducian, Lifespan and Sequoia
• A very long tail of 52 licensee owners down by net one each including Rhombus, WT Financial Group and WT Financial Group.

SMSF statistics to September 2025 – a record quarter

The ATO’s September 2025 SMSF data shows a record 14,494 new SMSFs, surpassing the previous record of 11,244 set in June 2025.

September is usually the strongest quarter for new establishments. However, 14,494 is a significant increase to the previous September record of 10,862 set in 2024.

Net establishments (new minus wind-ups) remain very strong. Wind-ups usually lag and take several quarters to show up.

Total SMSFs are now 661,384, up 37,236 from 624,148 in September 2024.

Key points on dashboard shown below:

• D1, D2 – the SMSF opportunity is still growing for existing advisers.

• For this quarter there is potentially a total of 42.9 SMSFs per adviser compared to 40.3 for September 2024. Back in September 2020 the number was 27.1
• In assets – there is a potential of $67 million per adviser, much as it was in June 2025. In September 2024 it was $64 million and September 2020 it was less than half at $32 million.

• D3 – the rate of SMSF establishments still growing – As highlighted above, the September quarter was a new record, ahead of the last quarter which was the previous record.
• D4 – total net assets stay above one trillion – Currently at $1,034 billion, and in June it was at $1,013 billion. In September 2024, net assets were at $986 billion.
• D4 average balance per SMSF and by member dip

• The average SMSF is at $1,563,546 just below the June quarter of $1,565,247. The average balance is also below September 2024, which had the highest average balance at $1,580,186.
• By member, the average balance follows a similar path. For this quarter it at $846,363 down slightly from June which was at $849,678 and below the record set in September 2024 at $855,120.
• Note: median balances are much lower than averages (see D6 for details). The details for 2023/24 have been updated and are at $932,572 per SMSF and $529,433 per member. The averages are skewed by a small number of very large SMSFs.

• D7 to D9 assets / investment – holdings of cash + term deposits once again dipped and now at a record low of 16.3 per cent of assets. Listed shares at 28.6 per cent continue to be the largest holdings. Crypto makes up around 0.3 per cent of all assets.
• D10 new establishments for the quarter by gender – Male at 54.6 per cent
• D11 quarterly establishments by personal income and gender – Males earning between $100,000 and $150,000 at 28.4 per cent being the largest group followed by females in same income rage at 22.1 per cent.
• D12 flow of funds – The flow of funds has been updated by the ATO for the full 2023/24 year. The net flow is negative at (-$22.7 billion). This is a large increase on the 2022/23 year which was negative (-$12.3 billion). The increase in outflows was caused by a jump in benefits being paid out at $57.66 billion, compared to $42.82 billion in 2022/23
• D10 age groups – Current age by members shows that 50.8 per cent are now over age 60
• D14 – fund and assets by states – NSW's share of new SMSFs was again high at 38 per cent up from the usual 33.4 per cent shown annually for 2023-24. This increase came mostly at the expense of VIC, which is at 25.6 per cent.