Counting Barry Lambert’s contribution

The founder of Count Financial, Barry Lambert, has been awarded Money Management’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012.

Lambert, the former Commonwealth Bank staffer who founded Count back in 1980, was selected for the award not only on the basis of the significance of having established one of Australia’s largest independent dealer groups, but also because of his long-term contribution to the broader financial services industry.

Lambert is the second recipient to be honoured with the Money Management Lifetime Achievement Award. The inaugural recipient was Gwen Fletcher in 2011.

The judging panel at Money Management determined that Lambert was an appropriate recipient in 2011/12 because it represents the 12-month period during which Count Financial was acquired by the Commonwealth Bank.

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Notwithstanding Lambert’s continued involvement with the dealer group, the judging panel regards the sale of Count as representing the end of an era and one which this publication believes needs to be recognised.

As well, the panel recognised that Lambert’s contribution to the industry extended well beyond the successes recorded by Count, through to the considerable charitable endeavours of the Count Charitable Foundation.

It was agreed that while Lambert was still likely to play an active role in the financial planning industry via his continued involvement with Count Financial and Count Plus, his contribution to financial services and financial planning had been both considerable and enduring.

It is a measure of Lambert’s approach to the financial services industry that he spent 19 years within the Commonwealth Bank before moving to establish Count, and the manner in which he moved into the dealer group planning space is indicative of the man’s broader approach to both life and business.

As any reading of the Count Financial history will show, Lambert utilised his accountancy qualifications and supplemented his income by preparing tax returns at night. As a result, he quickly came to understand that his tax clients often asked broader investment questions.

This prompted Barry to look at becoming appropriately licensed to provide financial advice and to scope out the types of organisations that could provide that licensing cover.

That exercise led him to conclude that the organisations which existed at the time were largely sales-based and unsuitable.

On that basis, and understanding the scope for accountants to provide advice, he resigned from the Commonwealth Bank and began providing specialised advice and training to accountants in Public Practice so that they could give professional investment advice to their tax and accounting clients.

It is a measure of Barry’s broader contribution to the financial planning industry that, on top of establishing Count and its offshoots, he was a founding director of the body which preceded the establishment of the Financial Planning Association, and was NSW president of that body in 1985 and national president in 1988.

While Barry claims that he has recently wound back some of his industry involvements, he remains closely connected to the financial services sector and its fortunes. Further, he continues to be a valued source of analysis of industry trends and events.