The general manager of National Australia Bank-owned licensee Godfrey Pembroke, Sean Allen, has left the company just weeks after another senior executive, Fiona Navarro, departed as the head of Apogee Financial Planning.
Allen left Godfrey Pembroke before Easter, after more than two years in the job, to pursue other opportunities outside MLC. Navarro left Apogee on March 20.
“Godfrey Pembroke is a great business with great people,” Allen told Professional Planner.
“We recently rolled out the three-year strategy, which focuses on a superior client experience, supported by an advanced technology solution.
“The strategy has the support of the advisers and will ensure that Godfrey Pembroke continues to be recognised as one of the leading providers of advice in the Australian market.”
A spokesperson for NAB says Jeff Munro has been appointed acting head of Apogee and Shane Canton acting head of Godfrey Pembroke. Munro is currently a practice development manager for NAB, while Canton is manager of strategic growth at Godfrey Pembroke.
A search for permanent replacements is underway and an announcement will be made “in due course”.
The spokesperson says both Allen’s and Navarro’s departures are unrelated to the recent adverse publicity attracted by NAB’s financial planning businesses.
“Definitely not,” the spokesperson said. “Fiona’s departure was in the pipeline well before it all happened anyway; and the same with Sean’s as well – it was not related to any of the recent issues.”
Apogee and Godfrey Pembroke will continue to be separately managed, with their own general managers unlike, for example, AMP Financial Planning and Hillross which following a strategic review by AMP of its financial planning licensees, are now both headed by Michael Guggenheimer.
The NAB spokesperson says there have been no other licensee head departures since Allen’s.
