RetireInvest advisers upbeat after dealer meeting

By Craig Phillips

Theanticipated meeting betweenING, its fully owned dealer groupRetireInvest, and in turn the latter’s adviser representation group — the Proprietors’ Advisory Council (PAC) — has ended with strong agreement between the parties.

RetireInvest says the meeting, which took place the weekend before last, reached broad agreement on all key issues between management and proprietors including the new business model, the proposed new franchise agreement, the focus and scope of dealer services, and financial arrangements between the dealer and proprietors.

PAC spokesperson George Flack says the outcome of the gathering was encouraging.

“There was mutual respect and understanding by both parties throughout the negotiations, and it turned out both sides were not that far apart once we started to work through all the issues,” Flack says.

“At the end of the day you can say that RetireInvest is back in business.”

ING announced in November last year that Tandem Financial Advice would be positioned as a boutique planning group, while RetireInvest advisers would receive increased support in the management of their businesses.

The announcement followed a report inMoney Managementthat the group was streamlining its dealer group operations, sparking staff fears of rationalisation and job cuts.

Advisers were also uncertain as to how they would fare under a new dealer split model.

However, following the meeting, RetireInvest claims all present strongly supported the vision to leverage the dealer group’s brand and franchise strengths in order to drive growth and improve efficiency and productivity going forward.