Mr Woods said the data represented “a very good week all up” for the sector, although he did not expect adviser exits to let up, with 149 practitioners having left since the start of 2021.

Growth continued to be at the smaller, privately owned and boutique licensees, at the expense of larger institutional licensees. Looking at longer-term data, Commonwealth Financial Planning led the decline in adviser numbers, having shrunk 70 per cent from 731 advisers in December 2018 to 219 in February 2021.

AMP Financial Planning had also seen significant adviser losses, down by 43 per cent from 1,414 advisers in December 2018 to 804 in February 2021. The institution was also seeing a large number of exits from its other aligned dealer groups, with Charter’s adviser numbers falling 38 per cent from 703 in December 2018 to 438 in February 2021.

Adviser exits from the MLC dealer groups also continued as a result of the sale of the business to IOOF, with Garvan down by 23 per cent on its adviser numbers at the end of 2018, from 487 to 375 in February 2021.

Meanwhile, WA-headquartered licensee Sentry Group had seen positive growth over the period, with adviser numbers up by 15 per cent to 139 in February 2021 from 121 in December 2018.

New licensees Financial Control and PKF had also picked up three and seven advisers, respectively, while Queensland-based Oracle Advisory Group had grown to 27 advisers in February, up from nine at the end of 2018.