The PersonalInvestment Planners (PIP) and Total Financial Solutions (TFS) dealer groups will merge as part of a bid to boost their equity offering to financial planners and create a single group with more than 100 planners.
The merger brings to a close nearly nine months of negotiations and will join the 22 financial planners with PIP and the 21 planners with TFS, under the banner of the latter group.
TFS head of business development Garry Walsh says the offer was accepted by the planners and management of the two groups last year.
Another smaller dealer group has reached an in principle agreement to join after discussions with the merged group, and eight individual planners are also keen to join.
“We have targeted for 100 advisers by 2006 but at the current rate, we should have that number by the year’s end, well ahead of our own forecasts,” Walsh says.
The two groups, under the merged entity, will continue to offer the equity deal first rolled out in January last year, where each planner has equal ownership in the dealer according to overall funds business written.
The advisers’ stake will be based on 90 per cent of business, while the dealer group will hold a stake in itself of 10 per cent of the business written by the group.
