Royal and SunAlliance Financial Services (RSAFS)will add a further dealer group to its distribution capabilities with the launch of its newest group, Guardian Financial Planning (FP), in a move expected to attract 200 financial planners.
The new dealer group will aim for the numbers over the following 12 months and has been designed to pick up planners moving to comply with the incoming Financial Services Reform (FSR) Act.
It will sit alongside the current distribution interests RSAFS already has, which includesCameron Walshe, as well as the clientele of Charterbridge Davey, which it purchased a fortnight ago, and Standard Pacific, a boutique planning group in North Sydney which was purchased about a year ago.
According to RSAFS chief executive Dennis Fox, the aim is for Guardian FP to have 40 planners on board by the end of this year with the first recruitment sweep targeting those life advisers affiliated with RSA Insurance.
“Those planners with other dealer groups but seeking the backing of a large group like ours will also be targeted as Guardian FP will operate across a number of key planning areas. These will include redundancy and retirement as well as superannuation and insurance protection,” RSAFS distribution general manager Peter Jowett says.
According to Jowett, the new dealer group will be able to work in these areas by leveraging off the other parts of RSAFS, which was formed when theConnelly Temple, Guardian Trust, Life Risk,Tyndalland Optimum master trust came together under the one banner earlier this year.
As a result of that move, Guardian FP will use Connelly Temple for a specialist superannuation service and RSA Insurance for risk business.
In keeping with the idea of assisting planners in the transition to the FSR Act, RSAFS has become a registered training organisation for IPS 146, although it will not compete with the Financial Planning Association (FPA) Diploma of Financial Planning (DFP) course, according to Fox.
Rather, he says the group will provide TAFE level training for planners, through face to face tuition or nation wide video conferencing, in each of its distribution interests to levels required under the FSR Act.
Guardian FP will also offer, under certain conditions, a buyer of last resort facility, based on preset multiples, to planners joining the group. The group is also in discussions with one of the big four banks to offer loans to planners who wish to purchase practices, which will be held against the income flow of the business.
