Privately owned financial advisory firm Centric Wealth has added general insurance advice to the range of services it provides to its customers in response to strong client demand for the facility.
Joint chief executive of Centric Wealth Michael Pillemer said: “We have had a lot of interest from our client base asking us over the last couple of years ‘Can you guys give me general insurance advice?’, and until this point in time we’ve had to decline.
“Clients are looking for an organisation on the general insurance side where they have that level of trust and that level of involvement. We have that with them on the financial planning side and the other sides of our businesses,” he added.
The new service has been added to offer advice across a broad range of insurance coverage to Centric Wealth’s individual high-net-worth clients, as well as its medium to large business clients.
“It very much fits in line with our strategy to be able to offer a true wealth advisory proposition to our clients, which includes both wealth creation and wealth protection,” Pillemer said.
The insurance advice to be provided by the firm will cover categories such as commercial and industrial special risk, public and products liability, prestige home and contents, professional risks such as directors and officers liability and professional indemnity, marine transit, corporate travel, and motor fleet.
Leonard Gordon has been appointed by Centric Wealth to run the new business arm. He has more than 20 years insurance broking experience in both the domestic and international arenas.
“What we’re trying to do is promote quality insurers, because at the end of the day you’re only really as good as the insurance company that’s standing behind you,” Gordon said.
Centric Wealth’s new service will have access to all of the main insurance companies in the market, most of whom have an ‘A’ rating, as well as some major offshore insurance organisations.
“Certain companies that we use cannot be accessed directly by our clients, and there are certain products in that whole grouping which are extremely upmarket products,” Gordon added.
Centric Wealth will again be using its independence as a key feature in rolling out the insurance advisory business, a benefit the firm feels their clients are truly beginning to appreciate.
Gordon said: “Basically, our allegiance is to our clients only. That’s where it starts and stops.”
Pillemer said the new service has been well received by all of the advisers to whom he has spoken. It has been made available to all of Centric Wealth’s clients in the company’s three locations of Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane.
