Beacon Financial Group’s new-look dealer, The Financial Link Group, has added 70 new authorised representatives, with Titanium Planners officially handing back its Australian Financial Services License to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Around 70 advisers, who were formerly with Titanium Planners, migrated to The Financial Link Group last week.
This week the merged group, which now has 170 advisers, $2 billion in funds under advice and administration, and $60 million of inforce premium, will host a national roadshow.
According to Peter Daly, managing director of Beacon Financial Group, the dealer is in the process of finalising a preferred list of insurers and platforms, but also supports an open-architecture model.
“We don’t mandate the use of any product or platform, but we’re quietly working our way through a preferred list of partners,” he said.
“We don’t want to restrict our advisers by telling them where they can place their business, and we don’t want to focus on the past or even the present, but to look to the future and form relationships with those who will take us where we want to be.”
So far ANZ Wealth’s Oasis Asset Management, Westpac’s Asgard e-Wrap and OneVue have secured a place on the platform menu.
Daly had a close relationship with ANZ Wealth when he was managing director of AFS. AFS’ Strategy platform was a white label of Oasis and a number of former AFS advisers followed Daly to The Financial Link Group. Daly is also chairman of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Planners, which owns a private-label version of Asgard’s e-Wrap called Personal Choice Management.
The Financial Link Group’s research house is currently Lonsec, however that arrangement is being reviewed. The group is also in discussions with boutique research house, CPG Research and Advisory.
The dealer, which has gone through a string of internal compliance staff in the last 12 months, has also appointed external financial services lawyers, Holley Nethercote, and SKM Lawyers, run by managing partner Sherine Metry.
Daly holds 4 million shares in Beacon Financial Group; former Titanium Group director Andrew Blanchette holds 1 million shares; and Linchpin Capital holds 1.5 million shares. There is also a proposal for former Professional Investment Services’ managing director and founder Robbie Bennetts to join the group. Bennetts is currently an authorised representative of The Financial Link Group, according to the ASIC register.