Independent specialist adviser firm Manly Financial Services (MFS) is aiming to maintain client growth – running at a rate of some 30 per cent over the past year – by strengthening its senior adviser team and eyeing suitable acquisitions. MFS is a licensee with the national advisory network, Futuro Financial Services.
MFS Partner, Mr John Alford, said that the purchase of Augeo Wealth Management in 2014 demonstrated that opportunities existed for further profitable business growth in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, MFS’s heartland.
“We have been leveraging our relationship with Futuro to assess suitable deals and identify people who will fit our team,” Mr Alford said.
This month, MFS hired two significant financial advisers, Scott Anderson and Anthony Simpson, to enhance its ability to provide consistent, sophisticated services and to boost client growth.
Mr Anderson joined from Perpetual Private Clients, where he specialised in risk advice. Mr Simpson has senior corporate roles in his 20-year career and has extensive knowledge in managing sophisticated client relationships, particularly in SMSFs.
MFS is one of the three largest financial advisory businesses in Futuro’s national network. “We worked very closely with Futuro to find and successfully integrate the Augeo purchase,” Mr Alford said. “Futuro’s Director Eastern States, Matt Haggarty, identified Scott and Anthony as being important additions to expand our specialist services. Matt has been instrumental in introducing high quality people and business opportunities over the last five years.
“While many firms have taken to obtaining their own license in recent years, we have added significant value from the strategic business advice that our licensee has provided in our moves to re-engineer our business.”
Mr Haggarty said that Futuro was currently reviewing the strategic plans for all of its member firms with an eye to how they could help with growth strategies. “We adopt a long term approach, suited to each business and the opportunities available,” he said. “Part of that involves the deployment of the right personnel.”
