New advisers keep Perpetual Private inflows positive

Perpetual Private appears to be reaping the benefits of selective adviser recruitment, reporting positive flows for the three months to 30 June. 

But the positive flows have not stopped Perpetual from announcing some significant belt-tightening for its most senior executives, with the company announcing that the chairman and chief executive had both agreed to a 20% reduction in fees and base salary for six months. 

As well, it said that the Perpetual board and executive team had agreed to a 10% reduction in fees and base salary over the same period with no cash bonuses in the current financial year for the Group Executive team. 

In an announcement released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Perpetual said funds under advice closed at $14.3 billion up 8% over 31 March, 2020 with the $1 billion increase predominantly due to recovery from the declines reported in the March quarter, with positive net flows also contributing. 

Perpetual chief executive, Rob Adams said the company had continued to see positive flows within Perpetual Private as new advisers transitioned clients across to Perpetual “albeit at a slightly slower pace than expected due to challenging market conditions”. 

He said this marked the 14th consecutive half that Perpetual Private had seen positive net flows, despite the extremely difficult market environment and ongoing dislocation impacting the advice industry. 

The company said that the Government’s early release superannuation initiative had seen Perpetual processing 3,800 withdrawal requests to 15 July equating to $26.9 million in eligible withdraws from a total of $3 billion in superannuation related funds under management.