Mercers beings retail assault

Former Asgard executive George Haramis has joined the ranks at William Mercer, as the group launches a full-scale assault on the retail market.

Former Asgard executive George Haramis has joined the ranks at William Mercer, as the group launches a full-scale assault on the retail market.

Mercer chief executive officer Bruce Cook estimates that by the end of the fi-nancial year, assets under management via the Mercer Retirement Trust and Mercer Savings Trust will have reached $2 billion. Assets under management in these trusts have increased from $15 million in 1996 to $842 million this year.

Mercers is also rapidly gaining a foothold on the lucrative retiree market through its financial planning network, according to Cook, with more superannua-tion clients staying with Mercer post redundancy or retirement.

Cook said it is encouraging that Mercer has someone like Haramis to guide them in a time when Mercer is "about to explode in all areas". Haramis joins Mercers in a development role and will be in charge of developing and promoting a range of investment services for the firms executives.

"Through George Haramis, Mercer will move to advising individual employees while still in service," he says. "The initial service will include investment educa-tion and financial planning advice, both to supplement retirement benefits and for wealth accumulation".

Cook says Mercer is now the largest adviser to corporate superannuation funds and has also become Australia's largest renumuneration consultant through Mercer Cullen Egan Dell.

In his role as general manager of group employee services at Asgard, Haramis helped steer former employer Asgard in its quest to capture the corporate super-annuation market. He was involved in securing the mandate for technology group Alactel's six superannuation funds, said to be the biggest corporate super ac-count Asgard has landed.