Londsdale begins expansion push

Lonsdale Financial Group has increased its existing dealer group base to 79 practices and 174 planners by signing up three new planning practices and one risk insurance advisory firm.

Three of the new additions to the Lonsdale Group are based in Victoria, with the other based on the Gold Coast.

They are Melbourne-based Complete Risk Analysis, The Money Growers situated in Cheltenham, Lifetime Advice located in Niddrie, and Lynrob Financial Planning based in Southport on the Gold Coast.

The Money Growers and Lynrob are essentially start-up businesses, while Complete Risk moved across to Lonsdale from the MLC-owned Apogee financial planning dealer group.

Lonsdale chief executive Mario Modica indicated that singing up the four firms was in line with the organisation’s long-term growth goals.

“We’d like to get to a target of 110 firms within the next three years … working on the basis of two authorised representatives per firm as an average, it’s going to be around 220 to 225 advisers,” he said.

In the shorter-term, Modica said Lonsdale were looking to add another 15 practices before the end of 2006 to take the number of firms in the dealership to around 90.

Modica cited Lonsdale’s support structures as one of the main reasons the four new practices decided to join the dealer group.

“We average one business manager to 25 practices, ensuring that each business receives the attention and support they need to do their business well,” he said.