Tassie Govt enters direct equity advice market
By Michael Bailey
The Tasmanian State Government has become an unlikely bidder for financial planners’ direct equity business, through its backing of a new service called investmentadvisers.com.au.
The crux of the service is a four-person investment committee, which creates a 30 to 40 stock recommended portfolio from an Aspect Huntley data feed on the top 250 Australian companies.
The online service also provides access to share trading platforms such as E*trade.
The Lennon Government owns 25 per cent of investmentadvisers.com.au, which grew out of a direct equity offering for ‘mums and dads’ developed in partnership with Tasmanian dealer group Shadforths.
Investment committee members Max Wheeler and Ken Fleming together own another 25 per cent, while the balance is held by high-net-worth Tasmanians.
Wheeler is a former stockbroker most recently with Aegis Equities Research, Fleming is the former head of global technology at Deutsche Bank Australia, while the committee is rounded out by former HSBC analyst Chris Chong and Shadforths’ existing head of research, Claudia Shepherd.
Wheeler hoped that wrap providers would encourage dealer groups to use the service, because he said it was resourced to produce comprehensive statements of advice, and could give planners the confidence to not use stockbrokers for their direct equity clients.
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