More advisers to weigh up licensing options



Financial advisers will be moving into licensing arrangements of firms that use an objective based advice route in 2017, Fitzpatricks Private Wealth believes.
The fee-based advice firm's chief executive, John McMurdo, said the market was currently saturated with the views of commentators seeking to analyse an inflection point facing the various underlying business models within Australia's licensee brands.
"We can say with great certainty that a significant number of advisers are indeed weighing up their options, just as the institutionally-owned groups have begun making major decisions regarding their future operating models," McMurdo said.
He noted that a combination of culture and values centred firmly on client principles had seen over 150 expressions of interest made by external adviser businesses to Fitzpatricks last financial year.
"That is in itself an interesting number. But perhaps more telling from our experience is a consistent desire by those advisers to align with licensee groups that offer the opportunity to more deeply explore the opportunities of the objective-based advice route," he said.
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