Financial planning dealer group Wealth Today attributes a combined mortgage broking/financial advice business model (involving the upskilling of mortgage brokers) for its rapid growth into one of the 50 largest licensees in the country.
Since commencing operations in 2009 Wealth Today has grown to include 122 currently registered authorised representatives, with another 19 signed to come on board.
Wealth Today chief executive Michael Stephens said the group was born from the mortgage broking space. It is a "natural progression" to take a long-term view of clients' needs at the point they purchase a mortgage, when the broker is already doing an assessment of their circumstances, and an opportunity to take the relationship to the next level, he said.
But "because the mortgage broker has the client, that doesn't necessarily mean he's predisposed to making that transition," Stephens added.
"The core [business] model is around upskilling the mortgage broker to take on first of all risk insurance, to get the client to protect their short-term position, then setting up a review process moving forward where you move to super rollovers and longer term investments and debt reduction, and various other disciplines," Stephens said.
"It's primarily based on the existing relationship [between] a mortgage broker and their clients, therefore you get the mortgage broker to go to a greater level," he said.
A broker will still often come across a client who has greater need than the broker has the capacity to deal with at that point in time, which can lead to a referral to another part of the business, Stephens said.
"We're starting to see that, where you've got guys operating at different levels of competence and referring clients with different needs amongst themselves – but it's predominantly based on upskilling," he said.
Stephens said Wealth Today was probably outside the square somewhat compared to many financial planning businesses, in that it is focused on the 'mum and dad' type of investor. "The mortgage broking space provides the natural conduit to that market and there is obviously demand out there," he said.
While the group is not specifically looking at broadening its service offering in the near future, it is anticipating significant growth, he said. Commencing from the beginning of the current financial year it is deploying a growth strategy where it will aim to double its number of authorised representatives over the next 12 months, he said.
