Dealer groups that have already developed licensing solutions for accountants, in preparation for the removal of the accountants’ exemption, will be forced to regularly reprice their offer before July 1, 2016 to stay relevant, according to Premium Wealth Management chief executive Paul Harding-Davis.
Premium Wealth Management, the accounting and financial planning firm that spun out of Count in 2000, has built a licensing package for larger accounting firms but won’t finalise pricing until mid-2015.
“We’re expecting modifications and refinements to the new limited AFS licence regime over the next two years, which will result in significant movement in pricing,” Harding-Davis said.
“Already we’ve seen the price of some institutional offers come down a bit since they were launched. There are a lot of moving pieces right now but as the end date approaches, we want to make sure Premium is seen as a natural fit in this space.”
To date inquiries about Premium’s solution for accountants has been low however Harding-Davis predicted interest would pick up around mid-2015.
The group’s business development managers have already been educated and trained on the offer, and its 22 member firms have been asked to provide referrals.
“Accountants are taking their time before deciding what they want to do and there’s still a lot of time to go,” Harding-Davis said.
Premium also recently appointed asset consultant, Ibbotson Associates to build a range of managed portfolios that will be implemented and administered on a new white label wrap platform built on HUB24’s technology.
The group’s 52 authorised representatives across the Eastern Seaboard of Australia will support the new wrap platform.
Due the large number of self-managed superannuation funds that Premium advises, approximately half of its $2 billion in assets under advice are in “off-platform” investments, Harding-Davis said. The remainder is concentrated on the Macquarie Wrap and BT Wrap.
There are seven platforms on the group’s newly-formed approved platform list
“We’ve always had an open architecture model and we never had a preferred platform list until the FoFA reforms required us to,” he said.
