BT-owned dealer group Magnitude Financial Planning and accountancy firm Hayes Knight are to partner in a new accountant-centric dealer group.
The new group will be called Merit Wealth and will provide financial advisory services to accounting practices either by outsourcing the advice or allowing the practice to offer its own advice under the Magnitude licence.
"Over the years we have operated a professional support network for accounting firms with over 450 firms and over the years probably the most asked question we've had is 'when will you provide us with a financial planning capability'," Hayes Knight partner Greg Hayes said.
Hayes said the growth of self-managed superannuation funds and increased calls for succession and estate planning meant there was a greater need for accountants to provide adviser-type services.
"Merit Wealth is about providing financial planning as an integrated part of an accounting firm, rather than a bolt-on," he said.
"This is by accountants for accountants. Because we are naturally part of this market we certainly intimately understand the needs of the market and the pressures."
Merit Wealth will open its first practice in Sydney on July 16, with a plan to gradually increase its footprint across Australia.
Magnitude chief executive Mark Spiers said the new venture needed early take up and some momentum before expanding nationwide.
"Initially we see the eastern seaboard as the natural starting point; saying that, we have already had enquires from South Australia and Western Australia," Spiers said.
Formed in 1996, the Hayes Knight group is an Australasian association of independent accounting and business advisory firms, with 38 partners and over 286 professional and support staff across the member firms.
Magnitude has 14 practices in regional and metropolitan areas spread across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.
