The 12 offices and 23 financial advisers operating under the WB Financial Management Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) have found a new home at Financial Wisdom, with WB chairman Garry Connelly citing Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) compliance as a major reason for the switch.
According to Connelly, the various stakeholders in WB made the decision to surrender their license in October last year and have been in discussions with Financial Wisdom since February.
As with Troy Edmondson, who held an AFSL for three years before handing it back earlier this month, Connelly told Professional Planner that being a boutique licensee had become “too difficult”.
“After much consideration and research, we elected to make the change to Financial Wisdom in order to access the resources and service support that [it] can supply to both our advisers and our administration staff, in what is an increasingly complex regulatory environment,” he said.
Connolly (right) was previously licensed through Financial Wisdom; this and a flexible approved-products list seems to have been the deciding factor in the choice.
“One of the key reasons for our adviser groups electing to join Financial Wisdom is that it supports our business philosophy and commitment to the way our advisers serve their clients,” he said.
“WB will continue to provide services to advisers including Credit Licensing via its Proloan arrangement, ongoing development of the Agentia SMA platform for adviser and affiliated adviser use, and continued support and development for the advanced WB Xplan site.”
Connelly believes WB has found a long-term home under the Financial Wisdom banner and warns that “compliance rigour” may see more responsible officers in boutique licensees reconsider how they use their time and resources.
General manager of Financial Wisdom, Mark Ballantyne, said FoFA was a game changer for many smaller players.
“We are not surprised to see firms like WB giving up their AFSLs in the new regulatory environment, and taking advantage of our resourcing and expertise to help manage – among other things – their supervision and compliance obligations,” he said.
“This allows them to get on with the job of being the best advisers for their clients.”
ah well hmm yes – and maybe the fact that under FOFA these so called boutique AFSL’s no longer recieve the various bribes & kickbacks in the form of platform rebates, conferences, volume overrides and various other preferential payments. Dont you get it – that model is broken! Compliance Hah!