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1 week ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
Anthony Del Vecchio pleaded guilty to 24 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception in March, resulting in the County Court of Victoria handing down a sentence on Wednesday of seven years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years.
He was employed as an adviser at Freedom Finance Australia from November 2016 until October 2023 when his employment was terminated.
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2 weeks ago | 
ifa.com.au | Maja Garaca Djurdjevic |Keith Ford
Speaking at ifa parent company Momentum Media’s Election 2025 breakfast event in Sydney on Thursday morning, Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said thechanges to education pathways will halve the time and cost for prospective advisers to join the profession.
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2 weeks ago | 
ifa.com.au | Keith Ford |Laura Dew
In the March exam, held on 6 March, some 241 candidates sat the exam and 73 per cent of them passed.
There was also a high proportion of first-time candidates with 175 sitting the exam for the first time.
This period’s pass mark is less than 77 per cent achieved in November, which was the highest pass mark in two years, but substantially better than 62 per cent in August.
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1 month ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
As overseas acquisitions continue to ramp up in the domestic financial services space, the latest firm to have a chunk snapped up is Wealth Architects.
Envest Group, part of global insurer Ardonagh Group, has acquired a 60 per cent shareholding in the Queensland-based firm. Envest is the largest privately owned insurance distribution group in Australia while Ardonagh is one of the world’s largest insurance brokers.
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1 month ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
There was a net gain of two advisers during the week to 13 March, according to Wealth Data.
However, one licensee – Wealth Trail – was down by 27, which brought its overall net losses to 63.
The losses mean that Wealth Trail, which is owned by Chris MacEachern, now has zero advisers.
The reason for the high volume of losses is the advisers were temporarily authorised at two AFSLs, Wealth Trail and Endeavour Asset Management (EAM), after EAM’s AFSL gained 24 advisers at the end of January.
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1 month ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has revealed that, as part of its annual fee review process, it will apply an increase of 3.5 per cent from 1 July 2025 for the 2025-26 financial year.
This will affect its annual registration fees, complaint fee schedule and systemic fees.
“As a not for profit, AFCA takes a careful and considered approach to our fees,” AFCA said in a statement.
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1 month ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
In its results for the first six months to 31 December, the firm said its net profit after tax (NPAT) was $12 million compared to $34.5 million in the first half of FY2023–24.
The firm said the statutory results were impacted by a $25.5 million impairment in asset management as well as one-off costs associated with the KKR scheme and simplification program.
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2 months ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
Announcing its full-year results for 2024, it said statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) was $88.7 million, up from a loss of $137.5 million a year when it was affected by asset impairments.
Underlying NPAT was $63.4 million, up from $35.9 million a year ago, while total revenue was $604.6 million, down from $626.1 million.
However, revenue was broadly flat for the APAC wealth management business (APAC Wealth) which was impacted by ongoing industry consolidation.
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2 months ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
Speaking at the Vanguard adviser roadshow in Sydney on last week, Michael Kollo, chief executive of Evolved.AI, said 39 per cent of advisers are already using AI in their business. An additional 38 per cent are planning to use it in the next year.
The main reasons it is being used is for client relationship management, client communication, documentation and compliance reporting.
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2 months ago | 
ifa.com.au | Laura Dew |Keith Ford
Last week, AMP announced it would be launching a digital advice service developed in partnership with Bravura Solutions for members of its AMP Super fund to receive retirement advice.
Super fund members will be able to personalise their desired retirement income goal and compare it with benchmarks such as the age pension and model different scenarios.
It is also planning further solutions in the coming months covering pre-retirement and post-retirement strategies.
