AIS and Bleakleys forge Partnership
Advisor Investment Services and Bleakleys are to join together under a new banner, Partnership Planners, from early next month.
Partnership Planners will consist of more than 350 planners, making it one of the ten biggest dealer groups in Australia. The group will be headed up by RetireInvest's Mike Walker.
The merger of two of the best known names in financial planning is part of an ongoing process to streamline the dealer groups structure within Mercantile Mutual which is made up of six dealer groups including RetireInvest, Lynx and AustAdvisers.
At the same time, the ING brand name has also made its way into the company's dealer group structure.
As reported in Money Management in May, Mercantile Mutual restructured its distribution networks under one unit, called the Adviser Management Group (AMG). The aim was to bring together the management and support services of the groups under chief general manager Les Clayton.
Under the new system, AMG has two arms, ING Financial Planning (INGFP) and Integrated Financial Services (IFS).
The INGFP division will cover Partnership Planners, headed by general manager Mike Walker and RetireInvest headed by Mark Spiers. Walker was previously involved at an executive level with the restructure and prior to that worked within RetireInvest.
Both dealer groups will continue to deal with their existing markets of professional high net worth investors and the retirement focused clients, respectively.
The IFS arm will cover AustAdvisers, AustBrokers, Lynx, Super Concepts and Concord and will be headed by deputy general manager Tony Hartley, who was previously Queensland state manager for life products.
Adviser management group chief general manager Les Clayton says the head of Advisor, Bruce McCreedy and Bleakley's managing director Lyle Jones are also both closely involved with the new venture.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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