A financial planning group that began life as a fintech start-up is enjoying a rapid growth phase.
PictureWealth Advisory leads the top 10 AFSLs with the highest number of new advisers in the year to June, based on a new financial adviser report released by Rainmaker Information this week.
The report found that PictureWealth has signed 42 advisers in the past 12 months, based on ASIC data.
David Pettit, co-founder of PictureWealth, said that there's more room for growth in the financial planning sector. He pointed out that of the 15,000-plus registered financial advisers, only 12,000 are client-facing to service approximately 12 million advice-ready Australians.
The sector needs to move from an industry average ratio of 1 adviser to 141 clients, which is the current ratio according to industry data, to a ratio of 1 adviser to 1,000 clients.
"PictureWealth's scaled advice service is supporting clients at a ratio of 1:230+, which is 60 per cent above the industry norm. Although the average client account balance may be lower, the client's need for advice can be on par," said Pettit.
That means the group can focus on providing service to Australians who have otherwise been left behind by the rest of the sector. Majority of advisers have gone 'upstream' to higher account balances and higher fees per client, he explained.
"We are working towards solving the [adviser shortage], which is why you are seeing our number growing rapidly."
Allan Maitland, the company's chief executive and formerly the head of consumer bank for Westpac in WA, added that part of the company's appeal is its ability to cater for advisers, self-employed or not, to continue providing financial advice in a way that the traditional model has not been able to accommodate.
PictureWealth enables financial advisers to provide remote advice where in-person advice is not preferred or possible.
According to Rainmaker, the second fastest-growing adviser licensee in the year to June is Endeavor Asset Management, which onboarded 27 advisers, followed by Gallagher Benefit Services, which onboarded 26 advisers.
PictureWealth Advisory is part of the broader PictureWealth Group, which also includes licensee's Insight Investment Services and Futuro Financial Services. Insight and Futuro collectively service a further 85-plus financial advisers.
This article was first published in Financial Standard.