Meritum signs up two new practices

Meritum Financial Group has snared two long-term Winchcombe Carson adviser practices in Melbourne.

The two practices are Leyden Martin and Associates, based in the CBD, and Gerald Gleeson and Associates, based at Essendon in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

The CBD practice was founded by Neil Leyden in 1982 and joined the Winchcombe Carson Group shortly after. In 1993 he was joined by James Martin, who is a CFP.

Meritum chief executive officer Brian Dau said it was Leyden’s first move from a dealer group in 25 years, and he didn’t make the decision to move lightly.

“A number of groups approached Neil, but he chose to join Meritum after a lot of deliberation,” he said.

The other practice joining the dealer group was founded by Gerald Gleeson, who completed his accounting qualifications in 1977. He has been a financial planner since 1988.

The latest practices joining Meritum now brings the number of advisers in the group to 85, and it is now represented in every state except Queensland.

Dau said growth would continue at a steady pace, with advisers that will fit into the culture of the group being targeted.

“We are attracting advisers by referrals and approaches rather than actively recruiting numbers,” he said.

“We are tending to recruit people we know, or know of, and we find they are loyal advisers who don’t change dealer groups every three months.”

The group has also developed a back-office service for both Meritum advisers and those outside the dealer group.

“It is a full range back-office service that includes paraplanning,” Dau said.

“We now have five paraplanners, and this is starting to be a succession plan for us, as many of these people want to become advisers one day.”

He said with an ageing adviser population, Meritum has to start to think about succession planning for some members, and paraplanners will be one solution.

“These people will know our organisation and how we work, so they have the right cultural fit to move into a practice when the adviser wants to retire,” he said.

“We are going to need more advisers in the future, and this is one way of bringing new people into the group and maintaining the right culture for the group.”

The paraplanners are also the first ones in the group to use X-Plan software, which Meritum bought as its future financial planning software package.

“We will start with the paraplanners, and this will enable us to iron out the bugs internally,” Dau said.

“This will enable a smooth introduction of the software before we roll it out across the group.”