Melbourne-based Financial Index has boosted its Sydney presence with the acquisition of Finders Trustees.
Financial Index director Philip Hart said the North Sydney practice will be merged with the other practice the company has in Sydney, although no location has been selected yet for the combined business.
“We will be bringing the two practices together and this will give us seven advisers in the merged business,” he said.
The latest acquisition follows 18 acquisitions in the past three years.
The dealer group now operates throughout Victoria, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane and has more than $1 billion of funds under advice.
“We are looking to add another practice in Sydney, preferably one based in the outer suburbs,” Hart said.
Financial Index’s buying spree has been pursued to help many principals looking to retire and wanting to sell to a group that will look after their clients.
The electronic advice delivery system Financial Index has developed is another reason why principals sell to the Victorian group, Hart said.
“The in-house developed electronic advice delivery system effectively turbo-charges the capabilities of the group, giving it the capacity to punch above its weight,” he said.
“Advisers can mange more client contact as they need less time doing the back-office work.”
Hart said because of this system, new acquisitions could simply be plugged into the advice system and, using the existing resources and infrastructure, the practice could run more efficiently from day one.
“It was the advice system that was attractive to Finders Trustees and they picked us rather than one of the 26 other bidders for the practice,” Hart said.
“This secret weapon has been independently verified as a key driver for transforming Financial Index into a dealer group offering uncompromising service at a very fair delivery cost to its clients, yet still can make a healthy profit,” he said.
“With all the acquisitions we have made in the past year, the advice system can handle the extra inflows and can be scaled up for more advisers joining the group.”
