ANZ pushes fee for service model

ANZ Financial Planning is rolling a further 10 to 20 per cent of its advisers over to a fee for service remuneration model, adding to the initial 10 per cent who made the shift back in October 2003.

The group is also in the process of both recruiting and transferring a total of 20 advisers to provide dedicated planning services to its small to medium enterprise (SME) clients with the aim of offering a broader range of financial services.

Outgoing ANZ Financial Planning general manager Dean Nalder says the next tranche of advisers will move to a fee for service model by April, with all SME dedicated advisers going straight on to the model.

Nalder says the fee for service model has worked better than expected, and although more of its advisers were keen to use it, the take-up had until now been capped at 10 per cent.

“We wanted to get a good six months with those 10 per cent of advisers under our belt, understand customer and staff views, and work on how to implement the model for the rest,” Nalder says.

He says the dealer group will roll out the fee for service model to all its advisers within the next two to three years, saying, “we see this as the future direction of the industry”.

The group has been working on the SME project for four months, according to Nalder, with the first advisers now trained and the remainder in the process of joining up.

Nalder says the dealer group is also aiming to end a recent plateau in planner numbers, with the new SME-focused advisers targeted as a large growth area for the bank.

At present the group has close to 300 advisers and in excess of $7.5 billion in funds under advice.

“We are looking at growing adviser numbers every half in the next couple of years. We’ll look at it every six months, plan, and then keep growing,” Nalder says.

Nalder will relocate to Perth in March to assume a role with ANZ’s retail banking division. He will be replaced by former ING advice and dealer groups executive director Mike Goodall.