The Association of Independently owned Financial Planners (AIOFP) has signed a deal with funds management groupIOOF Funds Managementto roll out a superannuation master trust directed at financial advisers.
Under the deal, the new Personal Choice Master Plan fund will use IOOF’s administration platform for the management of the fund. Also as part of the deal, IOOF will take a 10 per cent stake within Personal Choice Master Plan’s parent group, Personal Choice Management.
IOOF Funds Management has $3 billion in funds under management and administration. The group’s investment products and services range from superannuation and unit trusts to investment bonds and master trusts.
While the members of AIOFP who were involved with the development of Personal Choice Management fund hold equity positions, the fund is not in any way a part of the association.
AIOFP is a network of 22 independently owned dealer groups, with more than $3 billion of funds under advice. Chief executive officer Peter Johnston says the group chose IOOF after more than 12 months of searching the marketplace.
“We had a look at the whole marketplace. We spoke to almost everyone in the marketplace, among them Navigator, Macquarie and BT. But IOOF was the best value for money for the client and the adviser in our view,” Johnston says.
It is understood that before AIOPF and IOOF finalised the deal many of AIOFP’s members rejected a number of other deals due to the allocation of significant amounts of equity to entities that do not contribute directly to the funds under management process.
“A lot of financial planners are forgetting about the client, they are rushing to see who’s got the best IT program, with many ending up being largely irrelevant to both the financial planners business and to the client,” he says.
Johnston says what many people mix up is that master trust administration is not an investment, just a thorough account keeping tool.
In further AIOFP news, Johnson says the group’s board has elected four new members, extending its Adelaide based board nationally.
The new board members are David Watkins, fromQ Plan Financial Servicesrepresenting Brisbane; Chris Taylor, of Taylor Bowing representing Sydney, John McInerney from Totally Independent Financial Planning, representing Melbourne and Tasmania and David Dyke, from Intervest Securities, representing SA and WA. Dyke will retain presidency of the board.
