Dahn tops The List for advisers

Sue Dahn has reached the top spot on the The List: Top 50 Financial Advisers.

Sue Dahn, a partner at Pitcher Partners. Picture: Aaron Francis

Australia has a new top financial adviser — Sue Dahn of Pitcher Partners Melbourne has reached the top spot on the The List: Top 50 Financial Advisers.

Ms Dahn is the first woman to take the title since the list was launched three years ago.

This year’s list has 20 new entrants as major brand names such as Macquarie and Morgan Stanley share billing with a string of boutique advisers including Escala, Koda and Pitcher Partners.

With just seven female advisers on the list — up from six last year — Ms Dahn says: “I’m delighted for myself and the firm to win this prize and I hope more than anything else it encourages more women into this area.

“I want more women to stay in this profession because it can be a great career and they are ­really needed.”

The top 50 financial advisers in The Deal.

Our list is produced in partnership with Barron’s, the US investment magazine. The survey is based on methodology built over the past two decades by the Barron’s team. (Barron’s is a subsidiary of News Corporation, the owner of The Australian).

Ms Dahn takes the title at a time of turmoil in the financial adviser business, with legal battles brewing on attempts to remove trailing ­commissions and difficult negotiations between industry groups aiming to impose stricter educational standards for advisers.

As regulatory issues dominate, the major banks have moved to quit the advisory sector at any cost — Commonwealth Bank recently sold its Count financial advice unit back to interests connected with the original owners for $2.5 million, having paid $370m eight years ago.

It also comes as regulators have been emboldened by the recent royal commission into banking with a step-up in court prosecutions of rogue advisers over the past year.

The head of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, David Locke, welcomed the list praising the efforts of the best advisers while openly questioning whether the wider industry had genuinely lifted its standards: “We are seeing some real progress in key areas, yet we continue to see poor standards too and you wonder what has to be done to change attitudes in some parts of the industry.”

Mr Locke says the newly created AFCA (a one-stop shop for financial complaints) has received the biggest portion of complaints about superannuation, which makes up almost half of complaints by product type.

However, there is also progress in the advice sector with more advisers charging fees for service instead of commissions and a range of new independent planning licences being taken by executives who have left the major banks and insurers in large numbers.

The Top 50 Financial Advisers come from all over the nation, with the major cities dominating along with representation from wealthy enclaves such as Broadbeach and the Gold Coast.

Most of our top advisers do not demand a minimum fee of clients, but the average client portfolio is $1.9m. Top advisers typically have a staff of about 10 people and run a total portfolio in the order of $1bn.

Ms Dahn replaces Charlie Viola of Pitcher Partners Sydney, who was fourth this year.

Scott Carmichael of Escala Partners moves to third.