ING-owned dealer group Financial Services Partners (FSP) will launch a recruitment initiative next month that will guarantee new firms a 50 per cent increase in revenue within the first two years, FSP head of business development Steve Thomson said.
“Subject to certain conditions, if FSP does not meet its guarantee to new firms, it will reimburse the fees new practices have paid the dealer group within those two years,” Thomson told InvestorDaily.
FSP planned to boost adviser numbers from 200 to 300 and pick up another 50 non ING Group-aligned firms over the next two years, he said.
“We will be targeting quality firms in all states including those in large regional and rural centres, and will have a particular focus on areas where FSP has little or no representation,” Thomson said.
As part of FSP’s growth strategy, the dealer group has also appointed former Pivotal Financial Advisers recruitment manager Joe Meade to the newly-created position of FSP national recruitment manager.
Thomson said FSP was employing an active growth strategy to increase scale, as well as support for advisers and services for clients, and to remain competitive in the current market.
“To support FSP practices that wish to grow via acquisition we’ve recently established a partnership with business broker Kenyon Prendeville and was one of the first licensees to join up to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) Private Broker Network, which provides acquisition support through CBA’s Financial Planning Banking team and external industry specialists,” he said.
FSP was also in talks with three national mortgage brokers and two general insurance brokers for its network to utilise. It will also roll out new technology to help advisers get the best term deposit rates for clients as well as a more intuitive estate planning service.
Thomson said FSP would consider acquiring dealer groups and that a dealer service for smaller Australian Financial Services Licensees would still be unveiled in 2010.
