The group said more than 200 advisory firms signed up to its services in the first half of 2014, more than half of which joined direct from networks.
Joint managing director Matt Timmins (pictured) said more than a quarter of these 200 firms came from the Sesame network, which announced in January it was to go restricted.
Others came from network The Financial Group. Around 180 new joiners were IFAs, alongside 20 restricted advisers.
SimplyBiz’ growth plans are “more of the same” Timmins said, adding: “we would expect an additional 100-200 [new joiners] by the end of the year to continue to come from networks.”
Timmins suggested firms are looking to leave networks, which have become too restrictive in the operating models they allow.
“It is no surprise that a substantial number of these firms are making the decision to move from appointed representative status to directly regulated,” he said, “as we know from experience that many ARs are being pushed towards operating models they would not have chosen for themselves.”
“It is therefore natural that that these firms, both big and small, independent and restricted are looking to take control of their own destinies by becoming directly authorised.”
Sesame said in January it will be leaving the IFA space to avoid having to advise higher-risk, non-mainstream products.
It said its independent proposition would be replaced by a new proposition called Universal by the end of June – essentially the same as its previous offering, minus the access to non-mainstream products.
Sesame Bankhall Group’s (SBG) executive chairman John Cowan (pictured left) hit back at allegations advisers were leaving SBG in numbers.
On the contrary, he said, overall figures showed the group was growing. Sesame has seen about 0.6% of its members leave since January but mainly to become directly authorised within support services business Bankhall, he said.
“If you take the network, minus the 0.6%, and look at Bankhall and its additions, the overall picture is that SBG is growing.
“In fact, an interesting number of people who have come into Bankhall have come from SimplyBiz,” he said.
Cowan said in March the move to a restricted model caused a total of 67 of Sesame’s near 2,200 member firms to leave the network but only one of those businesses left the wider group, with all others joining support services outfit Bankhall as directly-authorised IFAs.
But national IFA 2Plan said in June it was also being approached by Sesame’s advisers who are looking to stay independent but are not ready to go directly authorised.
“Sesame advisers have started to look around, we are speaking to quite a few of them at the moment,” chief executive Chris Smallwood said.
