AIFP expands but retains boutique focus

Queensland-based boutique financial dealer groupAustralian Investment and Financial Planners(AIFP) is in the final throes of negotiations that will see it expand into the Western Australian adviser market.

AIFP managing director Michael Summers says the group is also considering signing up more planners to its existing businesses in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne early next year. It is his belief that many advisers will miss the boat in terms of next year’s March deadline for Financial Services Reform (FSR) licensing.

However, despite actively seeking to benefit from signing up some of these soon to be ‘homeless’ advisers, Summers is also apprehensive of how FSR will impact the industry.

“I worry about the next phase for financial planners with all the changes being brought about by the new licensing regime,” he says.

In relation to the WA launch, Summers says the group is scheduled to conclude discussions by the end of the month and will open an office in Perth with four new planners in early 2004.

However, Summers stresses the group, which has 52 advisers, is not at this stage considering any major expansion into other states in a bid to avoid losing its “boutique personal touch”. However, he does indicate that the group will still seek to increase its individual planner numbers across the four states it operates in.

“I have a notional ceiling of 100 advisers. The reason is one of our underlying philosophies is to retain personal relationships with all advisers in our group and that is our commitment to them,” Summers says.

AIFP provides advice on over $500 million on behalf of more than 10,000 clients.