Dealer groups that have assisted internal and external financial planners in their transition to a fee-for-service remuneration model have started to receive an increase in interest from third-party advisory firms, industry professionals have said.
Financial Services Partners (FSP) said it had attracted a lot of attention from non-aligned firms following its workshops to assist advisers in shifting away from commission-based fee models.
“Our new national recruitment manager, Allan Crane, has a long list of people to talk to following the workshops and I think going forward those dealer groups that have been active in this space are absolutely going to attract more attention,” an FSP spokesperson said.
“Of the 260 external people that attended [the workshops] about 70 per cent were advisers and about 30 per cent were business development managers, which I think signals that there are a lot of people in the marketplace who perhaps aren’t as confident as FSP.”
FSP New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory sales and development manager Kevin Lester said the main challenges advisers faced were shifting their mindset, making a commitment to a fee-based model, segmenting clients accordingly, articulating the value of advice and implementing the change.
“At the end of the day, advisers have to be confident, committed and disciplined if they want to make the transition successfully,” Lester, who spoke at the FSP workshops, said.
Practice management solutions provider The Encore Group agreed dealer groups that provided services such as transition-to-fees support would attract advisers.
“Assisting advisers in making the transition to fee-for-service is going to be a core attribute for any dealer group going forward,” Encore managing director Graham Peatey said.
“MLC and AMP for instance have been active in this space for some time and when you have two of the largest wealth management businesses moving to fees, you can only assume that the smaller groups will struggle if they don’t do the same.
“At the end of the day those dealer groups that can provide those valued services will attract new advisers. There’s no doubt about it.”
