Advance restructures as Hooper exits
Advance Asset Management (AAM) has set about a major restructure of its distri-bution and investment operations, following the departure of long serving manag-ing director Russell Hooper.
Advance Asset Management (AAM) has set about a major restructure of its distri-bution and investment operations, following the departure of long serving manag-ing director Russell Hooper.
Executive chairman Richard Cawsey says Advance will look to build distribution through parent company St George’s 2.2 million strong customer database and building service levels for external financial planners.
A number of planning groups and research houses have greeted the news with cau-tion. Research house InvestorSource has slapped a hold recommendation on Ad-vance funds, citing key staff departures and changes to the group’s investment ap-proach. Fellow St George stablemate, ASSIRT, has also downgraded its rating for Advance, classifying its funds as “not rated”.
Over the past year, there has been a number of significant investment personnel changes at AAM. Property fund manager Stuart Stuckey left last year to join BT, analyst Jesse Foo departed a few months ago for Merrill Lynch while managing di-rector Russell Hooper left suddenly last week. Funds under management for the group has also fallen from $3.6 million two years ago to about $2.5 billion re-cently, according to InvestorSource managing director Andrew Crawford.
Cawsey stresses that Hooper’s departure was amicable and notes Hooper’s “very valuable contribution to the establishment of a strong funds management group”. Chief investment officer Malcolm Robertson will take over as interim managing director until the group appoints a permanent replacement.
There has also been changes to the group’s asset allocation committee, following the departure of former AAM executives Susan Gosling and Justin McGlaughlin in March this year. Gosling and McGlaughlin left Advance three years ago to form boutique group United Funds Management.
Changes in the make-up of the committee has lead to AAM “moving away from the tactical asset allocation model”, Crawford says. He says Advance has also indi-cated it will change its core investment approach from a value to a growth style.
Cawsey acknowledges there has been a number of personnel changes but says the depth of talent at Advance has maintained strong performance.
He says Advance has taken its service levels for advisers up a notch, to build what he calls “a customer oriented sales and servicing culture”.
As a part of the new approach, Advance is about to launch a new adviser arm, to better service St George’s 2.2 million “loyal mainstream customers”. Starting last weekend, Advance will recruit a significant number of advisers to join its Invest-ment Adviser group. The group will run alongside the St George Private Bank and St George Financial Planning providing basic investment advice, Cawsey says.
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