St George Bank's profit before tax for its wealth management division tumbled $21 million or 20.8 per cent to $80 million for the 12 months to March 31 due to stock market volatility, the lender reported yesterday.
The bank's wealth management arm includes Australia's 11th biggest dealer group, Securitor, along with platform provider Asgard Wealth Solutions and St George Financial Planning.
The lender does not calculate profit figures for wealth management on a half-yearly basis.
Asgard's funds under administration (FUA) was flat for the year at $33.3 billion. New accounts for Asgard, owner of AdviserNetgain, gained 11 per cent.
Financial adviser numbers for Securitor, St George Financial Planning and its licensee services, rose 10.1 per cent to top 1000 for the first time, marking five straight quarters of gains.
Securitor's adviser productivity also surged 32 per cent.
"We have been able to grow our number of financial planners in St George Financial Planning and Securitor quite strongly and we have maintained a very high lens on quality and compliance within the practice," Asgard chief executive Geoff Lloyd told InvestorDaily.
"We believe going forward there are enormous opportunities in insurance for financial planners and their clients for both general insurance and life risk products."
The lender's insurance division revenue for the year stumbled 8.6 per cent to $13.2 million.
Overall profit for St George Bank, Australia's fifth-biggest lender, fell 10.1 per cent to $514 million for the six months to March 31.
St George raised its dividend to 88c, from 82c.
National Australia Bank, parent of dealer group and wealth manager MLC, is due to report on Friday.
