Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) plans to restructure its financial advice division into a new look Colonial First State (CFS) has forced the departure of CBA executive general manager financial planning and advice services Brett Himbury.
Himbury, who departs at the end of the week, was notified on Thursday that the movement of the investment management component out of CFS would also coincide with the bank’s advice business transferring into it.
The move is a bitter blow to Himbury as it comes less than a month after his division reported a 57 per cent jump in revenue for the second half of 2004.
“It was a complete surprise to me as I only found out on Thursday evening and have decided to leave the business at the end of the week. Clearly I’m disappointed as the advice business has achieved so much over the last 12 months.
“The essence is that the advice business will now report through to Colonial First State in the product world,” Himbury said
Under the new structure CFS general manager retail distribution, Richard Nunn will be responsible for the advice division, which includes Financial Wisdom, Enterprise 121, and the CBA’s pool of retail and business advisers.
“Our business has grown by 57 per cent over the last half year reporting period compared to half before. Notwithstanding that success they [the CBA] have decided to structurally move advice to sit under the product area of Colonial First State, and as a result of that I will be leaving the organisation,” Himbury said this morning.
Himbury joined the CBA in September 2003 six months after leaving Westpac in similar circumstances after the latter restructured its advice operations following the purchase of BT Financial Group in 2002.
“The key issue has been to get the investment management side of the business working, and given the investment management side of the business will be rolling out of CFS the other side of the equation is that the advice and insurance business will roll into CFS,” Himbury said.
