Mortgage Choice has increased its planner numbers to nearly 40 but has revised down further growth targets claiming it was seeking quality advisers as it moves beyond the setup phase of its planning operations.
Mortgage Choice chief executive, Michael Russell, said the group has increased spending on personnel and technology for Mortgage Choice Financial Planning (MCFP) which was geared for growth from its current level of 39 advisers.
"Moving forward we will continue to focus on quality recruitments and expect to have 50 advisers fully operational by financial year's end," Russell stated in the group's annual results material.
In both June and August last year Mortgage Choice indicated it would be aiming for 60 advisers by the middle of this year, a doubling of the 30 planners it had in June 2014.
However the results material stated that target had been pared back to 50 by 30 June of this year with recruitment to continue in 2016 with adviser recruitment to be driven by quality.
In releasing it financial results for the six months to 31 December 2014 Mortgage Choice stated that gross revenue from financial planning had grown from 1.2 per cent in the first half of 2014 financial year to 2.7 per cent for the first half of 2015 financial year. Funds under advice had climbed from around $80 million to more than $200 million and in-force premiums had climbed from around $6 million to $10.4 million.
Grosss profit had also grown from $213,000 to $553,000 across the same time period but net profit after tax had stayed constant at around a loss of $360,000 across the same time period.
The results material stated that while the MCFP build out had been completed and gross profit was expected to grow in the second half of 2015 and into 2016, monthly breakeven expectations were pushed out to 2016 in line with the adjusted recruitment policy.
