Elm sign up Adviser Ratings to judge planners

The Elm Financial Services dealer group has struck a deal with the Adviser Ratings group that could see all of its advisers issued with a ranking from the newly launched rating service for financial planners.

Elm chief executive Denis Terracini says the group, which has eight offices across the country, would encourage all of its advisers to apply for a rating from Adviser Ratings under the deal, after examining the rating system over the past few weeks.

“We have been working with Adviser Ratings for the past few weeks to test the ratings service across a representative range of our advisers, and are satisfied with the …nature of the ratings process,” Terracini says.

Adviser Ratings, launched in September, ranks financial planners based on an in-house audit and responses to a 22 page questionnaire.

Each adviser receives a score out of 100 under the ratings system. Financial planners who chose to be rated must pay a processing fee of $275 as well as an annual registration fee of $275.

Adviser Ratings chief executive David Child says the arrangement with Elm marked a significant departure for the ratings group, which to this point has dealt exclusively with individual advisers and not their dealers.

“We have rated advisers from just about every major dealership in Australia and it is gratifying that individual advisers are seeking ratings even from dealerships where their institutional masters have issued instructions not to do so,” Child says.

Child says Adviser Ratings has received 5000 enquiries from consumers since the service was launched.