In the past month, Australian Unity Personal Financial Services has fielded a substantial increase in the number of calls from advisers who are looking for a new licensee home.
Steve Davis, Chief Executive Officer of Australian Unity Personal Financial Services, said it is clear that some advisers aligned with struggling licensees, or licensees with reputational issues, are anxiously looking for stable, trusted and respected alternative organisations with which to align.
“We have also noticed that these advisers are very discerning. They are rigorous in their investigations into the quality of the support services and infrastructure a new licensee can provide them,” Mr Davis said.
“The areas of most interest are compliance, technical, investment research and marketing support.
“These advisers have the benefit of hindsight having had a negative experience and are now looking for value for money from a licensee; whereas in the past they say they typically prioritised low fees.
“It’s a flight to quality, and could be the start of an adviser backlash against the recent acceleration of vertical integration.
“We are in a good position to help the quality advisers looking for a new home because we have created a planner-focused environment that promotes advisory integrity while providing a high touch, full service model that enables advisers to provide service excellence to their clients.
“We expect the ‘flight to quality’ to gain more momentum as certainty increases around FoFA changes and the conflicted remuneration grandfathering,” Mr Davis said.
Australian Unity Personal Financial Services currently has 77 planning practices, 122 advisers and 22 mortgage brokers operating in all mainland states and the ACT
