Guardianfp and Cameron Walshe is to be repositioned as a corporatised boutique dealer group, backed and supported by institutional owner Asteron.
The repositioned boutique will expand its advice offering to the specialist aged care and self-managed superannuation fund markets, leveraging in turn off the brand strength of both Asteron and its new owner Suncorp to grow its planner numbers and inflows.
A range of specific research and training services, including a training and accreditation program in aged care, will also be offered as an inducement for planners to join the boutique, which will for the first time operate under its own Australian Financial Services Licence.
Currently, the 150-planner Guardian Financial Planning brand and Cameron Walshe, which has 17 advisers in several practices in WA and Victoria, both operate under the Guardianfp licence.
Group head of advice network development Steve Browning said if the boutique could “attract a dozen quality practices nationally over the next 12 to 18 months it would be a good result for us”.
The recruitment drive will focus on Victoria in the first instance, Browning said, although the boutique has “only just appointed a couple of new planners in WA, and is pursuing one or two opportunities in NSW”.
The repositioning has resulted in a change from the beginning of May in the role of Browning, who was formerly national manager for both Guardian Financial Planning and Cameron Walshe.
In his current role of group head of advice network development, he is responsible for growth and development opportunities for both Guardian Financial Planning and Cameron Walshe, and also remains head of the latter brand.
Guardian Financial Planning is now being managed by two existing regional managers, Jim Simpson now being responsible for the brand’s east coast operations and TimMcCallum for the west coast.
