More advisers to weigh up licensing options
Financial advisers will be moving into licensing arrangements of firms that use an objective based advice route in 2017, Fitzpatricks Private Wealth believes.
The fee-based advice firm's chief executive, John McMurdo, said the market was currently saturated with the views of commentators seeking to analyse an inflection point facing the various underlying business models within Australia's licensee brands.
"We can say with great certainty that a significant number of advisers are indeed weighing up their options, just as the institutionally-owned groups have begun making major decisions regarding their future operating models," McMurdo said.
He noted that a combination of culture and values centred firmly on client principles had seen over 150 expressions of interest made by external adviser businesses to Fitzpatricks last financial year.
"That is in itself an interesting number. But perhaps more telling from our experience is a consistent desire by those advisers to align with licensee groups that offer the opportunity to more deeply explore the opportunities of the objective-based advice route," he said.
Recommended for you
Digital advice tools are on the rise, but licensees will need to ensure they still meet adviser obligations or potentially risk a class action if clients lose money from a rogue algorithm.
Shaw and Partners has merged with Sydney wealth manager Kennedy Partners Wealth, while Ord Minnett has hired a private wealth adviser from Morgan Stanley.
Australian investors are more confident than their APAC peers in reaching their financial goals and are targeting annual gains of more than 10 per cent, according to Fidelity International.
Zenith Investment Partners has lost its head of portfolio solutions Steven Tang after 17 years with the firm, the latest in a series of senior exits from the research house.
