AGS Financial expands into three new locations through acquisition

AGS Financial Group has expanded its footprint to nine locations through the acquisition of Hartley Financial and Tax & Wealth. AGS’ existing offices in North Sydney, Norwest, Hurstville in New South Wales, South Melbourne and Parkdale in Victoria, and Brisbane in Queensland have been joined by three new locations: Picton and Sutherland in New South Wales, and Parkdale in Melbourne.

Alex Berlee, AGS Financial director and co-founder, tells Professional Planner the Brisbane presence could be strengthened but the firm is not looking for expansion for the sake of it.

“It’s a case of a better fit in terms of the business. It’s got to be a good fit and the right sort of acquisition,” Berlee says.

“And there’s a lot of capital looking to invest in the financial services space, so prices have pushed down a little bit lately. It’s just got to be a good fit, and we’re I guess selective.”

AGS Financial started as a financial advice business founded by Alex Berlee and Paul Bolstad, who were financial planners at the time. The business has grown with the intent to become a “one-stop-shop”.

The Hartley Financial deal was driven by structural and cultural fit. Hartley was built as fully integrated business spanning financial planning, taxation, accounting, and mortgages and lending, rather than an advice practice with referral arrangements attached.

“The strategy is to continue growing our locations and revenue and make sure, as much as possible, that we’re also providing the services that clients need from those different areas,” Berlee says.

And AGS doesn’t always acquire fully integrated firms. There have been strategic acquisitions made to strengthen an area of the business.

“In the past we’ve done an acquisition, let’s say just purely in the accounting space. As is the case in Hurstville with the Across the Board business, that’s purely accounting and helps grow our accounting business.

“But we find then, within that client base, they have other needs like financial planning, like estate planning, like mortgages,” Berlee says.

Hartley Financial acquisition

AGS Financial revenue for the past 12 months was around $21 million. The firm expects to close the 2027 financial year with $25 million in revenue, with $2.6 million coming from the Hartley Financial acquisition.

The number of active client groups has increased by 570 through the acquisition to 2722. AGS had 19 financial planners and three mortgage brokers and is onboarding two planners, three mortgage brokers and three accountants from Hartley Financial.

The licensing side of the acquisition for the advisers and the brokers is pretty much done and financial advice is now provided as authorised representatives of Akumin Financial Planning.

Founder David Hartley remains involved through the transition and when it is completed will continue to consult on a part-time basis.

Berlee says the benefits for Hartley’s financial planners is a more extensive range of services, including estate planning and aged care – things that it’s harder for a small business to have in house.

“We’re big on our technology,” he says. “CRM system and some of the automations and things like that that we do in the tech space, [we have] resources and support that a smaller business is just going to struggle to build on their own these days.

“All of that just makes the advice process a lot more efficient and easier to work with. The depth of the team and having more resources across the organisation I think helps the advisory team.”

AGS also has incorporated AI and automation at different steps of the advice process.

“File note, transcription, and capturing that into the CRM system. Next actions, secure document sharing with clients. A lot of end-to-end processes like the review cycle for clients, the messaging that it’s time for review, the booking links with Calendly, adding those to the system, generating review docs through the different product portals,” Berlee says.

Beyond acquisitions, Berlee says there is a lot of opportunity for growth.

“There are fewer financial planners than there used to be. There’s a lot of demand from potential clients. So, it’s really a good opportunity for us to grow organically as well as through M&A,” he says.

“Bringing in a business like Hartley’s, it’s allowing us to use some of our operational efficiencies to help make each of the professionals coming across more effective and to build more capacity.”