General insurance brokerage firm Insurance Advisernet Australia has expanded its network of advisers from three to 18 in the past 12 months, according to general manager of financial services Ben Semple.
"What we have been looking for are essentially young advisers who have worked in boutique firms, but haven't been able to obtain equity and have been dragged along," Semple said.
Semple was hired by Insurance Advisernet last year from Genesys, where he was a corporate super adviser, to grow the firm's financial planning and risk team, Insurance Advisernet Financial Services.
He said he expected to grow the financial planning business of the firm further than the current 18 advisers and lift the firm's funds under advice (FUA) on the back of referrals from its general insurance business.
"We don't have a fixed end, so to speak. But there is no reason why we can't get as high as 50 advisers, or beyond," he said.
The firm operates on a financial planning licence from Ray Miles-backed Fortnum Financial Advisers and Semple said a number of advisers were attracted by the dealer group's recently-launched unified managed account platform, e-Clipse.
"I think there is a lot of concern in the big dealer groups or banks around using wraps and advisers are looking to step into that independent space and price the client as they wish, rather than being dictated to by a dealer group or bank," Semple said.
Semple did not want to say how much FUA the firm currently had, but Insurance Advisernet Australia has about $1.6 billion of gross written premium under management in its insurance business.
