With the difficulty of recruiting good, experienced financial planners, it is surprising that any dealer group can expand its numbers.
Many dealer groups are on the expansion trail, but all admit it is getting harder to find the type of experienced adviser who will fit into their particular group.
ANZ Financial Planning head Mike Goodall admits the recruitment market has never been tighter.
“The market is very tight, the tightest I have seen it in the 23 years I have been in the industry,” he says.
ANZ has been on the expansion trail for the last couple of years and aims to have 450 planners by 2008 with its current support structure.
“We aim to add about 50 advisers a year,” Goodall says.
“Since announcing our expansion, we have been growing and meeting these targets.”
But ANZ is not hiring just to boost numbers.
Goodall says the first priority is to recruit good quality planners.
“We are not sacrificing quality for quantity,” he says.
“I don’t believe you can grow the business without having good quality control with recruiting.
“We aspire to recruit 50 planners this year, but not sacrifice quality.”
Another dealer group continuing to expand is Guardian, which is increasing its adviser numbers through organic growth and acquisitions.
Guardian Financial Planning national manager Steve Browning says the aim is to position Guardian and associate Cameron Walshe as a complete boutique dealer group.
“We are looking to grow organically and make selective acquisitions of practices that have the right feel about their future,” he says.
“We are looking for practices that will fit, rather than just acquisitions.”
Browning says the group wants to expand nationally and is looking for advisers in all major capital cities.
“We want advisers who are a square peg in a round hole in their dealer groups,” he says.
“They will be a good fit and can work with us to deliver a totally profitable partnership.”
Goodall says building the reputation of ANZ Financial Planning among advisers has improved considerably during the past 18 months.
“We have focused on stability in the dealership,” he says.
“Advisers don’t like people moving the goalposts all the time, as they want to plan the year ahead and be reassured with a sense of security.”
As a result ANZ is enjoying a low turnover of advisers at present.
However, it will still recruit about 50 planners a year in the foreseeable future, but there will be a growing emphasis on recruiting internally.
“The bank has 32,000 employees and, with the market being so tight, there are opportunities to recruit from within,” Goodall says.
“A lot of staff know about financial planning careers in the bank, so we need to talk to those who aspire to a planning career.”
The bank has many employees enquiring about paraplanning, and Goodall sees this as a natural step towards becoming a financial planner.
The fastest growing dealer group is Millennium 3, but its executive director Barry Martin would not comment on his group’s growth.
While a number of groups are expanding, some traditional dealer groups are reporting declining adviser numbers.
However, this can be misleading, as older groups are being hit with the retirement of long-standing advisers, which pushes numbers down.
There are also other reasons, according to Count Financial chief financial officer Michael Spurr.
“Count is a different group to a lot of other dealer groups, as most of our advisers are wearing two hats — accountant/ financial planner,” he says.
“Since FSR [Financial Services Reform] a lot of accountants have dropped out of financial planning, as the legal requirements didn’t justify them holding a separate licence.”
Spurr says Count used to encourage all its accountants to become financial planners, but since FSR it is no longer doing this.
“It is especially the case for those people who had not really been involved in financial planning,” he says.
While the dealer group has dropped in total adviser numbers, it is building a future reserve of potential planners through its ProfitPlus business.
“We now have ProfitPlus, which is a warehouse for potential new planners and accountants to join Count,” Spurr says.
“We now have 270 ProfitPlus firms, which includes some potential Count Financial planners.”
He says the separate organisation enables people to dip their toe in the water to see if they want to pursue a career as an accountant or planner with Count.
It also enables Count to see if they will be a good fit in the dealer group.
Another group losing adviser numbers is AXA Financial Planning, but national manager, dealer groups, Andrew Waddell says he is not concerned.
“AXA Financial Planning is changing and we have been losing advisers,” he says.
“However, I am not besotted by adviser numbers.”
Waddell says it was only a few years ago that AXA had 1,100 advisers in its two dealer groups (AXAFP and Charter), but today fewer advisers are producing more income.
“Adviser numbers might be down, but the ones we have are writing more business and generating greater profits,” he says.
“We have 200 less advisers earning more than when we had 600, and the business is also more efficient.
“I rate productivity and income before adviser numbers.”
Waddell says there is some movement of advisers between brands at AXA, which also skews the numbers, while a number of older advisers are retiring.
“The average age of advisers at AXA is falling compared to six years ago,” he says.
“Our average adviser age is down from 51 years to 46 years.”
While AXA is losing advisers at present, Waddell says the dealer group is still recruiting if it can find the right people.
“Moving forward, we may increase adviser numbers if we can find the right people,” he says.
“But it will be incremental growth and there won’t be a dramatic increase in adviser numbers in the short term.”
