The Melbourne-based national financial planning group Capstone Financial Planning has signalled the beginning of an expansion drive with the appointment of a national network manager.
Reporting to Capstone managing director Grant O’Riley, Jamie Johns has joined Capstone from Bendigo/Adelaide Bank, where she was senior manager of financial planning.
Prior to joining Capstone, Johns worked with AMP, Genesys and ING/OnePath.
Capstone is planning an assault on the accounting segment, which will involve developing new services and offers.
Johns was unavailable for comment on Tuesday. In a statement, she said that Capstone had “an ideal business model for the accounting world” and that it would “continue to explore new business opportunities that complement the Capstone model”.
O’Riley says the accounting marketplace is “a strategic choice for Capstone’s future”.
“We are a non-aligned dealer group with a range of support services that can assist not only financial planning practices, but can facilitate the growth of accounting practices too,” he says.
“Capstone already has accounting businesses within the group and further expansion in this space is a natural progression for us.”
O’Riley says many accountants will need to align with a professional licensee in future years and Capstone believes it fit the mould entirely.
“With continued industry consolidation, Capstone remains one of the few true non-aligned, independently owned licensees which will be a definitive requirement for accountants,” he says.
This move by the independently owned Capstone is expected to be mirrored by other financial planning groups as they move to capitalise on changes to the licensing arrangements for accountants and to develop support systems and structures for accountants who wish to become involved – or more involved – in financial planning under the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) changes and under APES 230, set by the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board.
In a Professional Planner survey earlier this year, more than 70 per cent of respondents said they expected more accountants to offer financial planning services once APES 230 comes into effect.
Capstone was established in 2002. It has $2 billion of funds under management and has offices in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
Good luck is all I will say to Capstone – just because you’re a “true non-aligned, independently owned licensee” does not mean you will have any success with Accountants. The latter are certainly flavour of the month right now. It seems like the marketing strategy of just about every dealer group/licensee is partly or largely focused on accountants and all players think their suddenly going to be attractive to them. But if not much has really changed about your business model or about understanding what financial planning really is, then I think the success at marrying FP and accounting will continue to flounder.
As for APES 230, if there is any change in the numbers of Accountants that get involved in financial planning, it will be at the margin. APES 230 is a guideline on how AFSL Accountants can be remunerated for provision financial services to clients. There has been never been anything stopping those who are not currently liceneced from becoming so and from operating in manner that the standard now aims to enforce. Therefore APES230 will not suddenly encourage them to start if is introduced. I hope it is, because the advent of a large distinct group of planners operating in a particular manner will bring competive forces to play that will finally start to professionalise financial planning in away that the industry was never able to acheive by itself and that FoFA will not deliver. When the change is finally made, Financial Planners will wonder why they made so much fuss about changing and delayed doing so for so long.
I suspect the only accountants that will get incolved in FP beyond the limited licencing regime and post the hoped intro of APES 230 will be those that don’t have a full book of hrs, those who let their ego’s get in the way or those that only see dollars.
Of the 180,000 accountant accross the 3 bodies, most are flat out and will neither have the time, inclination or desire to get involved.