ACC to practise what it preaches

Financial services business consultancy firm Advice Centre Consulting (ACC), which helps established advisory firms grow their businesses, is set to embark on an aggressive growth strategy of its own after just five months in operation.

ACC principal David Fox, who established the company late last year after nearly eight years with MLC, said ACC was “practising what it preached” by broadening its service offering, creating new partnerships with specialist professional services firms and recruiting experienced business consulting staff. He said he expects the strategy to enable ACC to grow exponentially, pointing out that the businesses he and his team worked with at MLC typically achieved annual growth rates of about 40 per cent.

“We have set our vision for the business, designed the operating model, identified the target market and then established the ACC service offering according to the needs of that market.”

Fox said he believes smaller financial services firms will comprise about 85 per cent of the industry by 2012, dominated by those that offer advice in multiple fields, including financial planning, insurance, accounting, legal services and business consulting.

“The components of advice available to clients will not be restricted to the traditional [areas of] investment, insurance and superannuation, but will include specialist advice on philanthropy, funding aged care, establishing and developing a small business, property purchase and sales, tax planning and administration and asset ownership transition,” he said.

Fox expects these businesses to generate about $50 million in revenue and deliver a profit to revenue ratio that exceeds 35 per cent.

ACC is currently working with Melbourne-based Haintz Financial Services, Hobart-based Davey & Scurrah, Sydney-based Arnheim Gillard, new Wollongong-based joint venture Finance Control and accountant Dennis Banks.