Insignia CEO shifts focus to advice for super members

Insignia CEO, Renato Mota, has told Money Management why the firm wants to launch a partnership model and how it will free up the firm’s time to work with super fund members.

Last week, it announced a new partnership model is being developed under the working name of Advice Services Co (ASC), which will have a strong mandate to grow advice practices and advisers operating under its licences.

ASC will be a partnership ownership model for self-employed licensees comprising RI Advice Group, Consultum Financial Advisers and TenFifty.

It will be headed up by current Insignia chief advice officer, Darren Whereat, as chief executive. Whereat was previously the chief executive of RI Advice Group from 2013 to 2016.

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Speaking to Money Management, Mota said: “It’s pleasing to have conviction over the next 12–18 months in the transformation of the business as a result of everything we’ve done over the last 12 months. Being a business that’s growing again is really pleasing.

“Specific to ASC, we have worked hard around the quality and sustainability of our advice model, so it felt like the right time to put a lot of that behind us and talk about the growth aspect.

“ASC is about a partnership with advice professionals to create a growing business that we see complementing other things we do in advice, whether that’s professional services or helping some of our super members get access to advice and insights.

“By creating focus around ASC, this will allow us to also focus on other parts of the advice continuum.”

Referencing the ability to help super fund members, he said technology will be likely need to play a role if large volumes of members are to receive advice. In the government’s formal response to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR), it stated it will be exploring how super funds can provide retirement income advice to their members.

“We are very supportive of all the recommendations in the QAR. It’s a really good way of making sure large parts of the population get the right support and help. It’s an appropriate way given the fiduciary obligations on super funds,” Mota said.

“Partnering with advisers is one way to do that, however if we are to fully maximise the potential and reach then technology plays a critical role. So the opportunities we see is to better embed and better utilise technology to facilitate that.

“Technology is already playing a significant role in making the delivery of advice more efficient, we have seen that through our Wealth Central technology which has been a real point of difference for our advice licensees, we need to use the same mindset in linking advice with super. 

“Tech plays an important role in allowing us to customise conversations and personalize interactions at scale and that’s where data and tech will play an important role.”

Insignia will initially hold a majority stake in ASC which will reduce over time as advisers receive equity in ASC. It will contribute staff, resources and working capital and continue to support the ASC business under a transitional services agreement for 12 months from completion.