Financial Partnership hones its focus on planning practices

Financial planning groupFinancial Partnershiphas appointed ex-’sAustralian Financial Servicesnational business development manager, Chris Smith, as regional manager for NSW and Queensland as it seeks to acquire further planning practices.

The group says it is targeting high achieving advisers who are looking for a ‘peer sharing’ culture in their dealership, with the firm setting a limit of 60 practices to protect this personal culture.

As for Smith, prior to his three years at Australian Financial Services, he was NSW and ACT state manager forZurich Financial Servicesfor four years. He has also been contracting for the last six months in a senior management role forRetireInvestin NSW.

Chris Smith is to replace Howard Smith who resigned from the NSW management role last month.

Smith’s appointment comes as the group aims to have a total of 60 practices on board by the end of 2004 - up from the 32 already signed up.

Smith says he is looking forward to working with Financial Partnership due to its distinctive offer for advisers at a time when the financial planning industry is becoming increasingly cluttered.

“Financial Partnership offers value to the advisers’ business by allowing them to generate equity in the dealer group,” he says.

The group says Smith brings a diverse range of skills and knowledge to the role and will be backed by the existing executive team of Stuart Abley, Joe Botte and Junzhen Zhang.