LowellFlinders, the dealer group headed up by long-standing industry figure and former Financial Planning Association (FPA) chair John Godfrey, is seeking to expand and has begun advertising for new recruits to work with the group.
Godfrey would not say what targets the group has set in trying to attract more planners, but stated the growth would not be as rapid as other planning groups, nor would it use “a big cheque book arrangement”. However, he did say the reason for growth was to help reduce some of the costs in creating the group.
“We are not seeking to be part of a big system, rather an independent group taking a low key approach to the world. If other planners are of the same mind, we would like to hear from them,” Godfrey says.
“There was a lot of time and money invested to set up the procedures and systems behind Lowell Flinders and we are looking at getting more planners to defray the costs involved, since we now deliver a whole suite of services through the whole group,” Godfrey says.
Godfrey recently left his role as chair of the FPA, stating he felt that the ownership of the Investment Training College by the Lowell Flinders Group was a potential source of conflict with the FPA’s training division.
At present, Lowell Flinders has seven planning offices and two estate administration offices in various major cities around the country, but Godfrey says the group hopes to expand its presence into other locations through the recruitment drive.
Lowell Flinders Group executive director and head of the dealer group, Ivan Barr, says the group will not offer equity as part of any package to attract planners to the group.
Instead, the group will use a variable revenue splitting arrangement based on the volume of business generated by planners and the services they call upon through Lowell Flinders.
However, Barr did say that the group would consider opportunities for others to buy into the business, but that would be a separate issue and not part of joining the group.
Lowell Flinders was formed in July last year after the combination of a private bank, trustee company, estate administration, a financial planning training group and three planning businesses — Fletcher Green, Riverside and Glebe Financial Planning.
