TheSealcorp-owned advisory groupSecuritorwill extend its services into estate planning and enhance the research it offers to advisers in the area of alternative investments and direct equities.
Speaking at the group’s annual conference in Hobart Securitor chief executive Sean West said the group will sign an alliance partner to provide estate planning for the dealer group but was not yet able to name them.
West said the group would also increase its focus on practice development inlight of it recently appointing Richard Liverpool as a practice development manager and reaching an agreement with Strategic Consulting and Training’s Jim Stackpool to measure the group’s performance in this area.
West says the reason for the expansion of services was that financial planning industry needed to move beyond investments to a wider service offering.
As part of that move Securitor has also established a National Advisory Council, which will have five adviser representatives among its numbers, and will provide input into changes in the advice model of the group.
According to West, Securitor has grown its adviser numbers by 10 per cent in the past year and is likely to do so again in 2004 compared with an average industry growth figure of 8 per cent.
The changes were announced on the same day that Sealcorp director of distribution and sales Dan Powell outlined a number of changes to theAsgardplatform, which receives just over 50 per cent of inflows from Securitor advisers.
Powell says the platform will have a new share trading model, a streamlined process for pensions under the master trust and e-wrap parts of Asgard, and the addition of investment gearing and further margin lending capabilities.
Other additions will include a full function cash account on e-wrap, mortgage services and growth pension style products being added from September.
The group is also slated to add sector specific and diversified multi-blend funds to the platforms menu along with an automatic rebalancing service which will allow advisers to rebalance back to a client profile without having to generate further Statements of Advice.
However Powell says Asgard will consider removing some funds which have not attracted significant inflows and those are under review at present.
