Evidentia Group believes its acquisition of Encore Advisory will help the asset consultant expand its competitive edge in the market.
Evidentia, now a wholly-owned subsidiary for ASX-listed Generation Development Group, announced it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire the advice consultancy firm on Tuesday.
Encore is a consultancy firm for advice, accounting, and mortgage broking businesses including existing Evidentia clients.
Encore’s management team of Mark Zaglas and Brendan Johnson will become a part of Evidentia Group, reporting to Evidentia chief executive Michael Wright.
“If you look at Encore Advisory, they’re the pre-eminent business advisory firm,” Wright, who will be speaking at the upcoming Researcher Forum about the Evidentia’s business model, tells Professional Planner.
“What it does is it gives us extra capacity and capability in our business consulting team. At the moment, our business consultant service is free as a part of tailoring with us. That will remain, but this will be an extension of that offer.”
Zaglas adds that “Encore will continue to be Encore”.
“We’re coming in to provide the paid-for service – our deep strategic and adviser expertise – and our hands-on, player-coach capability,” Zaglas says.
“This is about [Evidentia] really launching deep into that and expanding upon practice management which will continue as it is today.”
Even without the extended capability Encore offers, Wright believes Evidentia’s business consulting capability sets it apart from others in the market.
“Instead of leading with investments, we lead with advice,” Wright says.
“We go really upstream about advice before we event get to thinking about tailored investment solutions.”
Encore was owned by former MLC executives Zaglas and Johnson, as well as Tom Reddacliff, who is CEO of advice firm Adrians and a former Financial Planning Association general manager and will remain on Encore’s advisory board.
The completion date of the acquisition was 7 November.
The firm will continue with the Encore branding and the deal offers a succession plan for the firm’s three owners.
“By joining Evidentia, we’re getting opportunities to grow and scale that aren’t often provided to a small, privately-owned company,” Zaglas says.
“It ensures that the Encore brand and our IP and what we do is secured for the next 10 years plus.”
Generation Development Group, which owns investment bond provider Generation Life, acquired Evidentia for $320 million in February 2025 and Lonsec in June 2024.
GDG has three business lines: Generation Life, Lonsec Research and Ratings, and Evidentia Group with Encore will fall under the latter.
Lonsec Investment Solutions – the researcher’s managed account offering – was split out from Lonsec Research and Ratings and brought under Evidentia.
GDG is led by executive chair Rob Coombe – who is also a non-executive director of Colonial First State, a former CEO of BT Financial Group and former chair of MLC Australia – and by CEO and former Olympic swimmer Grant Hackett.
BlackRock acquired a $25 million minority stake in GDG in May as part of a “strategic alliance” where Gen Life would design and distribute a holistic retirement solution for the Australian market.
BlackRock head of Australia Jason Collins told the Professional Planner Licensee Summit earlier this year it was the first balance sheet investment made by the asset manager in Australia.
The Evidentia deal comes as another asset consultant, Ascalon Capital, announced it has merged with Evergreen Consultants.
A statement from Ascalon said Evergreen will transition into the business, which will continue to be led by Ascalon CEO Aubrey Roga.
Evergreen director Angela Ashton, who founded the firm in 2016, will remain with the investment and consulting team to ensure continuity for Evergreen clients.
Earlier this month Delta Research and Advisory merged with Farrelly’s Investment Strategy, creating another new asset consultancy, Delta Portfolios.
