Biti steps up to new challenge
By Justin Lim
Asteron head of technical services Louise Biti has announced plans to start her own independent firm specialising in delivering financial planning technical strategies to boutiques that currently lack access to high-level tech support.
Biti said her new business venture, Strategy Steps, will target under-serviced boutique and mid range planning groups that want more help in understanding how strategies can be incorporated into the financial planning process.
“Many smaller groups don’t necessarily have their own technical staff on the payroll or the capacity to employ somebody at a higher level in their business, so they might have a more junior technical person who can leverage off the support that I can provide. I also plan to contract out to the larger groups for specific projects.”
According to Biti, the technical support currently available to boutiques is often limited in quality.
“Predominantly, advisers get their technical services from buying publications or from fund managers and product providers that might give you access to the teams they employ — but the quality and level of service is quite variable,” she said.
“Often the support that’s being provided for free through fund managers is not practical enough. Also, they’ll usually specialise in areas that relate to that product provider’s business, not necessarily areas directly related to financial planning.”
Despite this need for more independent technical support, Biti said providers were tightening the availability of their services in order to shore up their customer base.
“I think there has been a gap in the market for a very long time. While fund managers do provide technical support, they are becoming increasingly more selective in who can actually access that support. This is because they want to make sure their resources are directed to those advisers who have the strongest relationships with them.”
As such, Biti said she expects the business to do well, since high quality technical services are something highly valued in the financial planning space, especially for those smaller firms.
Strategy Steps will be fully operational by the end of July, once Biti has finished her role as Asteron’s head of technical services.
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