AZ NGA confirms Fortnum license arrangement
Financial advice firms owned in part by the Paul Barrett-led AZ Next Generation Advisory Group (AZ NGA) have been provided with the opportunity to move under licensing arrangements provided by Fortnum Private Wealth.
AZ NGA chief executive, Paul Barrett confirmed the arrangement to Money Management this week, noting that it had been made necessary by the recent decisions to close some licenses under which the AZ NGA-aligned advice firms were operating.
Among those advice firms are some substantial practices which were working under the Financial Wisdom license, which the Commonwealth Bank has declared it intends closing by June, next year.
Barrett said that as well as the Fortnum arrangement, advice firms associated with AZ NGA had the choice of moving to coverage of a number of other licensees.
He said the objective in dealing with the licensing issue had been to negotiate suitable arrangements with quality licensees.
Barrett described it as a “pretty innocuous” move prompted by some recent licensee decisions.
The Italian-backed AZ NGA has developed a substantial portfolio of advice practices based on a model under which AZ NGA is not the licensee, arguing that its mission is to invest in firms where it sees an alignment of values and an opportunity to “partner with entrepreneurs to effectively executive their business strategy”.
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