‘Model for the future’: Morrows enlists Bombora for risk expansion

Recognising the need for specialist talent to take on risk advice, boutique advisory firm Morrow Private Wealth has established a joint venture with risk advice specialist firm Bombora to form Morrows Risk Insurance.

Bombora managing director Wayne Handley tells Professional Planner this is the advent of a model that will allow more clients to access risk advice and improve client outcomes.

“It’s an enabler of advice and this is the model for the future as far as we’re concerned,” Handley says.

Although Morrows had already offered risk advice, the joint venture will see Bombora become the licensee that covers the risk advice offering, rather than it falling under the Morrow licence.

Handley says it’s difficult to specialise in all areas of financial planning and life insurance is a highly specialised area.

“This about the advent of a new collaborative advice model where professional business houses and professional service firms are working together to provide better client outcomes, both in the provision of initial advice, ongoing service management and claims management when it comes to life insurance,” Handley says.

Morrows Risk Insurance will be led by directors Cameron Peck and Mark Butler, two risk insurance and advisory experts with over 20 years of experience.

Peck says this brings Bombora’s expertise to the existing client base in the Morrow Private Wealth business.

“We see the advantages of having Bombora as the pre-eminent specialist licensee support,” Peck says.

“In terms of the advice, the advice falls under Morrows Risk Insurance, so all advice is being delivered under that name and that’s where the clients sit.”

Handley says similar models will take off around the industry, with businesses recognising the value of handing specialist advice needs to the appropriate professionals.

Handley says trying to handle specialised advice in-house is “a business risk for themselves and it’s the client experience issue”.

“With all the headwinds the life insurance industry and sector has faced, it’s quite interesting they have also played into the face of the business model [where] people are specialising in certain areas, so we expect to see more of this,” he says.

Graeme Marks, director of Morrows and Morrows Risk Insurance, says to do more in the risk advice space meant reaching out to a specialist organisation.

“What we want to do is elevate and amplify it and increase our capability to get more specialist advice for our clients in this regard,” Marks says.

“The client base will expand through the very nature of what we do, and we do that very well. The primary reason is certainly to be a broader offer in relation to insurance and encompassing this in a more focused fashion for our clients.”

Data from the Adviser Ratings ‘2023 Life Insurance Study’ identified around 150 “pure risk” advisers, making up 1 per cent of the ASIC Financial Adviser Register.

The same report found another 3400 advisers did write risk. However, about 78 per cent of advisers on the FAR only write a small amount of risk, refer out to specialists, or write no risk business at all.

While the joint venture between Morrows and Bombora may help improve risk advice access on a small scale, Handley notes more must be done at a greater scale to solve the underinsurance gap.

“Nothing is going to immediately solve the issue that we don’t have enough risk advisers in the marketplace,” Handley says.

“This is another perfect example of us dealing in that mid-to-top market and dealing with that client that can afford to pay for that advice.”