AMP’s deal with Entireti will see a complete AMP Advice and AMP Financial Planning rebrand next quarter as the firm completes its advice transaction.
Matt Lawler, who was AMP group executive for advice and officially now NewCo chief executive, tells Professional Planner the re-brand process will be “quite a democratic process” with advisers.
“NewCo is the working title at the moment, and we are working on a brand which we’ll announce in the first quarter next year, but the AMP would need to change because AMP is one of the licenses,” Lawler says.
Lawler led AMP Advice, the overarching advice arm of the institution, which included licensee AMP Financial Planning.
NewCo also includes AMP’s two other licensees Charter Financial Planning and Hillross, along with self-licensed service provider Jigsaw.
175-year-old AMP revealed its sale of the licensee arm to Entireti for $10.2 million and minority stakes in 16 advice practices to AZ NGA for $82.5 million in August.
Expected separation and transition costs have increased to a $36 million accounting loss from $30 million which will be recognised in the firm’s 2024 full year annual financial results to be released in February.
AMP will have a 30 per cent equity stake in new holding company NewCo, which it aims to sell down to advisers and management in NewCo.
AMP chief executive Alexis George says maintaining this holding was to help support the new separated entity as it becomes profitable and sustainable,
“We’ve also been very clear the first 10 per cent we will give to advisers, that’s up to Matt and the team to determine how that’s going to be allocated,” George says.
“That will be allocated once they can see the sustainability of the entity. The other 20 per cent, I can see a phase over time where we would sell that down to the advisers, but it’s not something that’s desperately important for us now.”
Both Lawler and AMP chief executive Alexis George say they are focused on preventing disruption of advisers as Entireti acquires AMP’s advice licensees.
George says they’ve got to “make it easy for the advisers because they don’t want to distract them from their real jobs”.
However, the advisers have been heavily engaged in the process since it started over a year ago. “[We] did a series of roundtables, spoke about all the options and got their feedback on what they would like to see,” Lawler says.
“NewCo was part of that construct and that was something that all advisers were keen to have a look at.”
Following the completion of the sale, AMP will focus on building up its intra-fund advice capabilities to serve members of its super funds, retaining its five salaried planners.
George praised the teamwork that has made it possible for AMP and Entireti to complete the transaction in such a short period of time.
“I think the fact that we’ve actually delivered this before the end of the year, after announcing it in August, is a really big thing,” George says.
“We’re committed to really working together, and I want this to be as successful as Matt wants it to be successful and we’ll do everything to support him and the team and the advisers through that.”
Lawler agreed with this sentiment “the fact that we announced this on 8 August, and we’re completing now, is a real testament to how everyone’s worked together”.
“[The advisers] were really impressed that we moved on it, we made decisions, we set up a really clear future and a really clear direction for them.”
Entireti also confirmed its leadership team which will consist of group CEO and managing director Neil Younger, group chief operating and financial officer Glen Castensen, group risk executive general manager Daniela Mascarello, Fortnum and Personal Financial Services CEO Matt Brown, and Lawler.
