Commonwealth offers $1m prize for advisers
ByPhilip Macalister
COMMONWEALTH Bank's New Zealand subsidiary, Sovereign, is offering to make one adviser a millionaire next year.
Advisers who sell business for the company will be offered entries into a prize draw with a $1 million jackpot. This competition replaces the traditional offshore trips Sovereign has offered advisers.
The company says advisers aren't keen to travel offshore since the terrorist attacks in September, so it was looking at other ways of spending the money budgeted for trips. Sovereign head of marketing Vena Crawley says the company also wants its reward scheme to stand out from the pack.
"Everyone does group travel. We’re trying to move away from the pack," he says.
The $1 million scheme runs until June 30. Advisers will earn entries based on the amount of business they write. The more business they write the greater number of entries they get in the draw.
Second and third prizes are $100,000 and $50,000 respectively and there will be six $25,000 prizes. Monthly prizes of $10,000 will also be offered.
The money will be paid to an adviser or an advisory firm, depending on the contractual arrangements, Crawley says.
Although there’s no strings attached to how the money is used, Sovereign is encouraging advisers to spend it building up their businesses.
As part of the promotion, Sovereign will also give away $100,000 to five charities, using a vote by advisers to decide what proportion should go to each one.
Other firms, including AXA and Royal & SunAlliance are continuing with plans to take advisers offshore. AXA is planing to take about 250 advisers to a conference in Tahiti in April and Royal & SunAlliance is planing to take advisers to Singapore and Thailand next year.
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