BT Financial Group has refuted suggestions it is deliberately targeting Count Financial practices, saying Count practices that have left the Commonwealth Bank-owned licensee have done so for their own reasons.
The general manager of advice for BT, Mark Spiers, says eight former Count practices have joined BT, out of 34 practices in total that have joined BT in the past 12 months.
Spiers says “there’s going to be a lot of this going on in the near future” as a growing number of planning practices reassess their current licensee offers.
He says the global financial crisis precipitated a perfect storm of market, regulatory and consumer upheaval that has led all forward-thinking financial planning businesses to re-examine how they deliver services to clients and what services they deliver.
“There’s a vanguard of practices that assess their position early in the cycle, and then there’s those who come to it later in the cycle,” he says.
Spiers says the timing of the Count practices’ moves is not coincidental, as practice principals assess the service offer from their current licensee and compare it with what else is on offer in the market.
He says he is not sure why BT has been singled out for criticism without knowing how many practices in total have left Count and which other licensees they may have joined.
“For anyone who has been part of a relationship breakdown, it’s an emotive situation,” he says.
“But it’s fair to say that this has got a disproportionate amount of airtime.”
Spiers says no financial incentives have been offered to Count practices to join BT beyond standard “transitional support” as practices switch licensees, and that advisers who are part of BT-owned dealer groups do not receive preferential treatment from any of the BT group wraps.
And the dealer group fees charged by BT are consistent with others in the market.
“It’s like any of your business relationships or employment relationships,” he says. “The fee or your pay is a critical component, but it’s not the component they make a decision on.
However, Spiers acknowledges that Count’s existing relationship with BT, through BT Wrap and Asgard, would have been a catalyst for Count practices to consider BT as an alternative licensee.
“We do not take equity or buy into practices because we believe practices should be solely run and owned by the operators of that business,” Spiers says.
He adds that BT is selective in the practices it is willing to accept into its dealer groups, and they all have three common characteristics.
“First, they are like-minded,” he says. “It’s all about the client and client outcomes.
“Secondly, they have a great cultural fit with us – their ethics and philosophy.
And third, they are aspirational. They want to do something and they want to grow.
“We do not want to talk to everyone in the market.”
Spiers says practices have come to BT both off their own bats and after being approached by BT.
“We have got a push and a pull,” Spiers says. “Where we have a pull is because BT is a leading player in the marketplace. It’s got a big brand that stands among advisers for leadership and innovation – and that is leadership in several areas: thought leadership, product and service leadership, and relationship leadership.
“The practices joining us are coming for a reason. They’re looking for a strong leader [and] to be sure they can best position their businesses in the new world.”
So what if BT are targetting Count practices? Makes good business sense in my eyes.
Is one to asume from the comments here in that :-
Count Practices were unhappy with the CBA value proposition ( which included a retention payment for being part of an acqusition ) and that they were so disillusioned they approached Westpac and BT to join Magnitude but somehow fortuitously found themseives being paid more for leaving ?
That BT had no idea that was happening and now feels it is being singled out ?
That sign on fees ( now called transition fees ) are industry normal practice as opposed to the 1980’s when they were called agency development loans?
Not sure how all this could happen overnight when entirely co-incidentally an entire team of managers join BT from an aligned wrap user ….get a bucket load of money to buy practices ……but then find count practices just approached them.
Reality check is that BT’s strategy for 10 years has been badging their wrap with distribution for margin share and the dealers involved are now selling to competing product manufacturers( thought admin wasnt a product? ) so its a defensive move – Blind Freddy…….