Geoff Lloyd
St George-owned financial planning dealer group Securitor plans to add a new insurance asset class to its AdviserNetgain practice management tool in an attempt to bridge the gap of underinsurance among Australians.
The move follows recent changes to Securitor’s senior management structure, which saw Neil Younger take over from Sean West as the head of advice business solutions.
Speaking at Securitor’s annual convention, St George Group executive for wealth and chief executive of Asgard Wealth Solutions Geoff Lloyd said this is the year for the group to “break the mould”.
Lloyd said as part of Securitor’s new phase of growth, the group plans to invest in dedicated risk advisers and refocus its distribution culture to become broader across the channels.
“Importantly, we want to make it easier for financial planners to move from managed funds and equities to insurance … so as quickly as we can we’re bringing insurance as another asset class onto AdviserNetgain,” he said.
While he couldn’t be drawn on exactly when an insurance option would be available on AdviserNetgain, Lloyd said the group is working on a timeline at present, stating the insurance business came to the portfolio six months ago.
“One of the things we want to do is to make sure we focus on delivering the promise that we’ve already made with AdviserNetgain. So what Neil [Younger] has been doing is ensuring that we get as many of our advisers using AdviserNetgain as we have today, and then we’ll add more asset classes.”
Lloyd said the insurance gap creates a great opportunity for Securitor, though he was quick to acknowledge many of the group’s competitors have also noticed the trend in the industry.
“When we look at our competitors, very much they’ve been refocusing on their insurance businesses outside just the banking channel to IFAs [independent financial advisers], and now we’re starting to see this a little more on platforms.
“So for us, we really want to put leadership into the insurance team for the new phase of growth. Nothing’s broken in there, it’s just about the opportunity of life and risk mostly outside the channel,” he added.
