Mortgage Choice Financial Planning intends to leverage off its broking business to recruit financial advisers and build scale with 11 franchises currently operating in five states.
The company first announced its intent to enter the financial planning space in August 2011 and launched its first franchise and a six-month trial period in October 2012.
Mortgage Choice FP general manager Tania Milnes told Professional Planner that it plans to have 60 financial planning franchises under the Mortgage Choice banner by the first quarter of 2015.
Sweetening the deal for potential recruits is a robust network of 380 broker franchises, which together with the company’s website are said to have generated 80,000 requests for financial advice last year.
The business was also built with the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms in mind or, as Milnes puts it, “There is no change required to legacy systems”.
While Mortgage Choice Financial Planning will operate as a separate franchised business to the existing mortgage broking business, current broker franchisees will have the first opportunity to partner with an external financial planner or take on a salaried adviser.
Milnes says the uptake has been good so far, keeping her small team busy with inquiries and compliance questions.
She added that the decision to offer a financial planning service was driven both by customers and “a duty of care”, given the parent business encourages people to take on debt.
An early convert to Mortgage Choice FP is Fairien Azeem, who understands both sides of the business, having started on the broking side at Mortgage Choice before switching to planning and setting up a practice licensed through TAL-owned Pivotal Financial Advisers, now Affinia Financial Advisers.
“It seems like a natural fit,” Azeem told Professional Planner, adding that flexibility around product choice was an important factor for her.
