Major change is about to occur within Axa Financial Planning and Charter Financial Planning to increase profits, advice quality and retain advisers.
Hundreds of self-employed advisers within the dealer groups will write new business plans over the next 18 months as part of a three-year strategy to improve their businesses and make Axa an attractive option.
They will review all parts of their work and receive help in areas such as managing staff behaviour, recruitment, acquisitions, succession, revenue collection, licensing and compliance.
A pilot program has been underway in several states.
“This is a massive enhancement to our offer,” Axa national manager of Charter and Axa Financial Planning Paul Williams said yesterday.
Axa has spent the last 12 months scouring the world for best advice and getting ready for the enhancements to the licensee offer, Williams said.
In 2006 the group took its top-performing advisers to the Financial Planning Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
It also sent its compliance managers to the United Kingdom to get ideas on how to improve business.
“Our research found more than 90 per cent of principals agreed there was a need to manage their businesses better,” Axa national manager financial advice network Paul Robertson said.
Robertson, who declined to put a numerical value on what the changes would mean for Axa, said practices would be benchmarked against like practices.
“It is not a one-size-fits-all approach that looks like something out of a textbook,” Robertson said.
Planners in South Australia were briefed on the strategy on Wednesday.
Planners in New South Wales will be briefed today at a professional development day in Sydney and the rest of the country will be briefed next week.
