New research from Cerulli Associates shows the US adviser head count has increased year-on-year for the first time in nine years, by 1.1%.

"Many positive developments led to the headcount growth last year," said Kenton Shirk, associate director at Cerulli.

"From the adviser perspective, there is a heavier focus on teaming and onboarding rookie advisers into multi-adviser practices. Advisers are eager to hire junior advisers so they can refocus their own efforts on their largest and most ideal clients. There is also greater awareness and concern about succession preparedness."

But the firm predicts numbers will start to fall again by 2019 as more advisers retire.

In New Zealand, the number of advisers has been steadily dropping since the advent of regulation.

In June last year, there were about 1900 AFAs operating in New Zealand.

Over the year to September, 91 new advisers were authorised and 122 terminated their authorisations. There are now 1842 AFAs.

Terminations include people who have let their FSPR registrations slide or voluntarily removed themselves and terminated their licenses.

Massey University financial services commentator Claire Matthews said financial advice needed to become an attractive career option, “particularly for young people coming in”.

She said it was very hard for young people to start out as advisers. “There needs to be an apprenticeship model.”

Institute of Financial Advisers president Michael Dowling agreed. He said there was no clear career path for advisers. “Do you go from a qualifying financial entity adviser to a registered financial adviser to an authorised financial adviser?”

He said a clearer track would make it easier to appeal to young people studying at university. It was something the FMA had acknowledged in discussions about the FAA review options paper.

Attracting the right people to become advisers was vital, he said.