The former chief executive of dealer group Financial Services Partners (FSP) has said his decision to quit the group after more than a decade centred on a number of factors, including timing and the shift in Australia’s advisory landscape.
Geoff Rimmer told InvestorDaily the main reason for leaving his post was reaching a point where he felt “it was just time” to move on.
“We’d achieved everything that we would have achieved and all things come to an end,” Rimmer said.
He denied his move was fuelled by a desire to lead a breakaway dealer group from the ANZ-owned financial services firm.
“No, that wasn’t true. It’s true that I was thinking about what next, but there was never any structure created or anything like that,” he said.
“Whenever you’re reflecting on what you’ve achieved and what you might do next, you always look at what worked and what didn’t, but there was certainly no breakaway group.”
As part of Rimmer’s idea about his next career move, he said he reflected on the state of the advice profession, including the “old world models” that still existed.
“There has been some major shifts in terms of the landscape over the last three or four years. You’ve had the GFC (global financial crisis), which has really been quite extraordinary, and I think that’s going to be with us for quite some time,” he said.
“You then had FOFA (Future of Financial Advice), and all of the regulatory issues that are going to come with us. So if you look at that as something that’s going to sit in the background, and then you think where are the opportunities?”
After leaving FSP in November last year, Rimmer spent time consulting before being introduced to Equity Trustees managing director Robin Burns.
“We had a couple of really good discussions about where we thought the world was going and where I could see some opportunities for some really good-quality advisers who were looking to evolve what they were doing, and then also have a look at what trustee businesses were doing,” he said.
For a trustee company, its currency was trust, which Rimmer said was in line with the thinking from a financial planning perspective.
“All of the associations, the FPA, the AFA (Association of Financial Advisers) . the government . the regulator – they are all saying that’s where we need to be,” he said.
“So then we started to talk about how do we bring them [trustees and independent financial advisers] much closer together and then what could be achieved if we did that. So that’s how the role came about.”
Last week, Equity Trustees announced Rimmer had signed on in the newly-created position of head of private wealth services.
As Rimmer is due to officially start with Equity Trustees on 2 July, he was unable to comment too much on his new job.
“In general terms, Equity Trustees has all the ingredients that one might like so that you can package where this new frontier or next generation of advice is going to come from, and until I get there there’s not much more I can tell you about it,” he said.
Asked whether he anticipated FSP advisers would contact him with the notion of joining him at Equity Trustees, he said he did expect calls, though he was not focusing on the past but rather “focused on the future and building Equity Trustees”.
“I certainly anticipate being contacted, but I’m not sure it would be with a view to come and join me,” he said.
“I’m sure they will want to see, like any adviser contemplating a relationship with Equity Trustees, what it’s like . and should evaluate the services and the overall value proposition.”
