Specialist financial planning consultancy Class Leading Solutions (CLS) is set to enter strategic alliances with six product and research providers to the industry.
Founder and executive manager Kurt Smyth said the first of the strategic alliances will be announced “within the next week”, with the remainder to be announced within months.
The alliances follow the appointment this month of a CLS representative in Queensland, the first appointment by the Sydney-based consultancy on the way to building a national operation.
Established by Smyth in October last year, CLS identifies and implements solutions for financial planning practices, including portfolio construction and management.
Smyth said demand by financial planners and licensees for the CLS service had been growing strongly in the ongoing market downturn.
“This sort of market is where financial planning practices are critically reviewing what they have been doing and highlighted areas where they really need to change.
“When times are good there is less of an imperative to do strategic reviews, and make changes, but there is now an understanding by planners and licensees that they can afford not to.
“The solutions can make an immediate effect to the bottom line by delivering real efficiencies to their business, or through better service and client outcomes enable them to command more reliable fee-for-service income,” he said.
