AMP cuts cord to in-house advisers
AMP Financial Planning (AMPFP) is set to close its employed planner support channel due to the cost of servicing the relative small number of in-house advisers in the group.
The move will see AMPFP now focus solely on assisting its more than 1,000 self-employed financial planners, with the decision only impacting on 32 financial planners.
According to AMPFP managing director Greg Kirk, the number of employed planners within the dealer group has shrunk in recent years as more have opted to take the self-employed route.
“We reached the point where we only had a small number of employed planners and it was increasingly difficult organisationally to support a channel of that size. The strategic competence we have is more in supporting a partnership-type alliance with small businesses, and we find that that is the model we want to concentrate on,” Kirk says.
The lack of scale in the employed planner channel was also an issue, according to Kirk, with the economics of providing dedicated resources to properly service those planners and meet employer responsibilities proving unsustainable.
Kirk says that the employed planners have been given a number of options, including generous transition terms to become self-employed planners and redeployment within the group in other roles, and expects that the planners will have made their decisions and be ready to move to the next stage by September 30.
“There was a consultation period prior to the decision about the alternatives, and we have tried to have a strong and fair and equitable opportunity for [the planners] to consider.”
The decision was made in the context of an ongoing review of the planning model within AMPFP, with Kirk flagging further changes moving forward.
AUTHOR
Freya Purnell
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