Focus and support boost growth

Work undertaken in recent years is paying off forCommonwealth Financial Planning, says executive general manager Brett Himbury, with the bank-based group topping this year’s list of Fastest Growing Dealer Groups.

“First we focused on the business structure for a few years to get a stronger positioning,” he says.

“This meant growing the productivity of advisers, the quality of advice and the support services.”

Himbury says the adviser division has also received a higher level of support from the bank’s executive team as they saw the economic benefits of having a strong financial planning arm.

“We have also built a better relationship with the front-end staff at the banks,” he says.

“We have now consolidated all this work and have a very strong commitment to grow the planning business.”

Himbury says these moves are now attracting advisers to Commonwealth, with numbers coming from both internal and external sources.

“There are bank staff members who have done the DFP and want to move into financial planning,” he says.

“We also had a big group of paraplanners and some of those have progressed into becoming advisers.”

Himbury says some advisers have joined Commonwealth from other institutional dealer groups as a result of seeing the changes to the bank’s financial planning operations.

“Other external recruits want to come and work in a bank environment which has good customer relationships.”

Himbury admits the challenge now is for the bank to deliver those services and customers to the advisers.

“Our challenge is to bring the good things an institutional can deliver to planners, while supporting the advisers with good services in the background,” he says.