A previous winner of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) adviser of the year award says increased compliance obligations are behind the decision to disband his boutique Australian Financial Services Licence and sign up with a dealer group.
Troy Edmondson held an AFSL for three years, during which time the number of authorised representatives grew from seven to 16, but told Professional Planner “the gloss soon wore off”.
About half of the existing advisers under Edmondson’s Queensland-based Business and Estate Planning Specialists licence are joining him at national risk specialist dealer group Affinia.
Edmondson says he feels a connection with Affinia as he and some of the advisers share the same background from their days with Professional Investment Services.
“After holding the licence for a number of years, the compliance obligations were taking me away from running a specialist insurance and estate planning practice. I want more time with my clients, not less,” he said.
“After researching the market, Affinia provided a very good fit for us and aligned similarly with our goals.”
Removing the noise
He has few regrets about the move, citing the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms as the final straw, and adding that it is now extremely difficult to be a boutique licensee.
“Running a boutique AFSL with all of the obligations as a licensee was taking me away from my core business,” he said.
According to Edmonson, the Affinia offer is competitive and the group is keen to help risk advisers run their businesses profitably.
“Having an open APL not aligned to a big institution is a key differentiator that enables advisers to pick the products that best suit customer needs. That is truly customer-focused,” he said.
“The daily blog I receive from Keith Abrahams tells me to pursue my passion, so that’s what I decided to do. Running the business and providing advice to small business owners around their risk management and estate planning needs is what I am passionate about, and joining the Affinia group has enabled me to do that.”
Affinia general manager Craig Parker said Affinia’s strategy is to partner with like-minded risk professionals.
“We remove the noise so our advisers can do what they do best: see more clients.”
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