A number of common themes unite the top five licensees in this year’s CoreData survey of financial advisers’ attitudes toward their dealer groups. And the top-five list also reveals some outliers. Glenn Freeman reports.
The Licensee of the Year survey conducted by CoreData has been run and won for another year, with a number of surprises emerging among the top placeholders.
Four out of the top five for the 2014 study qualified for inclusion in the analysis for the first time this year, gleaning the minimum 20 adviser responses needed. Additionally, two of the top five are non-institutionally aligned, being the winner, Fortnum Financial Advisers, and third-placed GPS Wealth.
The heads of the top five licensees have revealed a few common issues that led to their strong showing in the CoreData analysis. These primarily revolved around:
• transparency in dealings with their advisory practices;
• communication channels;
• engagement models between advisers and external partners;
• education and training initiatives; and
• consistency of service delivery.
While the study highlights what licensees are doing well, it also stirs up some of the areas where there is still considerable room for improvement.
As Kristen Turnbull, CoreData’s head of financial services, indicates in her commentary, the level of support that advisers receive around acquisitions and succession planning is one area that needs more attention.
Even so, CoreData acknowledges that this is not something that has been widely demanded by financial advisers.
Whether this will continue to be the case remains to be seen, as the industry emerges from the persistent cloud of uncertainty that has loomed as the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) reforms are bedded down.
Who needs an institution?
Ray Miles (pictured), executive chairman of Fortnum Financial Group, believes their results prove that advisers don’t need to be part of an institutional dealer group to be successful.
“If you look at dealer land at the moment, most people seem to think they need to sit inside an institutional dealer or have their own Australian financial services licence (AFSL).
“If they sit inside an institution, they know for a fact that the institutional dealer has to look after the institution – and that makes sense; it is what it is,” Miles says.
“Then you go to your own AFSL, you have no resources; you’ve got to do it all yourself.
“The smartest, best paid people in the world just do the one thing they’re good at. So if I’m going to be an adviser…there are all these other things I’ve got to do, instead of just one thing.
“Our advisers know that we’re on the same side of the desk as them; they’re actually the majority shareholders of our business. I think that’s a big thing.”
Top 10 Licensees of 2014
1. Fortnum Financial Advisers
2. Meritum Financial Group
3. GPS Wealth
4. Financial Services Partners
5. Bankwest Financial Advice
6. Financial Wisdom
7. Count Financial
8. Godfrey Pembroke
9. Apogee Financial Planning
10. Securitor
Source: CoreData
Read the full report – including interviews with the heads of the Top Five licensees – in the June 2014 edition of Professional Planner – out now.
