Insignia exits JANA as it details Q4 results

JANA has announced that it will become a wholly-owned company following the exit of Insignia Financial, which held a 45% stake in the investment consultant.

MLC Wealth had retained a 45% share in JANA in 2017, before being subsequently bought by Insignia.

JANA chief executive, Georgina Dudley, said: “Full management ownership enables us to continue to build on that success and seize even more opportunities for our clients. This is a significant next step in JANA’s evolution, enhancing both autonomy and alignment, and linking staff directly to the success of the business and our clients.”

JANA would continue to provide investment consulting services to Insignia Financial. The buyout would not impact JANA’s existing client services or agreements and was expected to be completed by 31 January, 2023. 

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Insignia results

In its quarterly results to 31 December, Insignia said funds under management was $83.8 billion while funds under administration were $201.3 billion.

Insignia said it maintained relationships with 1,525 advisers, down by 45 during the quarter which primarily (37 advisers) came from the self-licensed channel.

This was from within existing member practices following reviews of their adviser base and was not expected to have a “meaningful financial impact”.

A short-term revenue reduction was expected from the integration of MLC Advice into Bridges and the subsequent reshaping of the service proposition. This would be the result of low fee-paying clients being removed from fixed-term service agreements.

It also saw platform net outflows of $267 million during the quarter as a result of “challenging conditions in the advised channel” of $246 million in net outflows. However, it saw $2.7 billion in inflows via the same channel, out of a total $4.7 billion.

As well as the exit of the JANA stake, it completed the sale of Australian Executor Trustees to Equity Trustees which generated proceeds of $130 million. It would continue to provide a number of services to AET under a transitional services agreement.

Chief executive, Renato Mota, said: “Insignia Financial continues to make deliberate and meaningful progress on execution of its transformation and simplification strategy across our three businesses, demonstrated by the sale of AET and our stake in JANA and continued refinement of our platform strategy.

“Our progress over the last quarter reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering consistent outcomes for our members, clients and shareholders and ultimately improving the financial wellbeing of all Australians.”