The increased legislative risk to the financial planning sector of late is having no adverse affect on either the demand for advice firms or their sale price, according to Kenyon Prendeville broker Steve Prendeville.
“We haven’t seen any price difference for commission-only or fee-for-services advice firms over the past 12 months, and certainly over the last three months, arising from the legislative risk that is now in the market.
“At this stage legislative risk is not being built into any valuations of advice businesses for sale, which suggests advice firms see demand for advice continuing,” he said.
On the other hand, Kenyon Prendeville has experienced a reduced demand and price for corporate super funds, which Prendeville attributed solely to the increased legislative risk.
“Corporate super at this stage is the only area where we have seen any decline in demand and that’s partly due to the recent announcement of the Investment Financial Services Association’s draft super charter.
“At this earlier stage we cannot say if sales of corporate super specialist firms have been impacted by last week’s Federal Government agreement to allow super funds to provide intra-fund advice.”
