New financial advice trade body Libertatem has claimed to be within weeks of overtaking Apfa in the number of directly authorised advice firms it represents.
Garry Heath, the director general of Libertatem, said the new trade body had recently doubled its member firm count.
The former director general of the IFA Association said that he was arranging his first meeting at HM Treasury, and planned to hire staff for Libertatem early in 2016.
He said: “It has been going at the speed we expected and we are quite happy. We don’t know what Apfa has got, but we should be the largest IFA body next month.
“I would imagine that in September we doubled the number of members we have got, but I would prefer to keep our numbers quiet.
“It is not really a competition, but by Christmas we will have the finances to do everything we want do to.”
Mr Heath said he knew of several firms which had left Apfa in favour of his trade body but said he did not know the full figures “because it isn’t a question Libertatem asks when advice firms join”.
He said: “A few of them have volunteered it but I am not trying to compete. Most of the people who are joining us were unengaged.”
According to Apfa, it has approximately 60 per cent of the market by adviser numbers.
