The Australian Financial Services Group’s (AFS) move to become a fully independent dealer group has proved to be an additional catalyst for growth, with 18 new financial planning practices having now signed-up to operate under the AFS banner since the beginning of the year.
AFS chief executive Peter Daly said: “In April we became independent from any financial institution, and that is a major attraction for a number of practices. Ever since that fact was publicised, we’ve had a number of phone calls from practices that don’t want to be associated with an institution of any description in order to eliminate any perceived conflicts of interest.”
The additional 18 practices mean the AFS has almost achieved its planned growth target for the 2006 year by the end of July.
“On average, we’re now putting on at least 20 practices a year, and having put on 18 practices in nearly seven months, I would imagine [this] means we’ll easily achieve our target of 20 new practices for this year,” Daly said.
He said the financial planning practices that have recently joined AFS have been recruited from a variety of competing dealer groups and have been welcomed into the business as a result of several key characteristics.
“The first thing we’ve done is look at existing relationships and sought to bring like-minded individuals to the group. That’s very important because you have to maintain the culture. Then what we’ve attempted to do is target either proven practices and/or dynamic individuals,” he added.
The expansion of the dealer group means it now encompasses 84 financial planning practices and has approximately 185 financial planners under its control. It also means AFS is now well on its way to achieving what Daly sees as its ideal size.
“My view is to have a core group of 100 practices, and I would like that core group to have $100 million in funds under advice. But then sitting off that core group we will have a number of risk writers, a group of nursery practices made up of dynamic individuals that we are helping develop, and a group of old AFS practices that are very successful, but will not be growing particularly much,” Daly explained.
