AXA advisers’ second bite of Discovery cherry

AXA Australia will conduct a re-run later this year of its Discovery program — a scheme launched in June 2003 where the group bought clients from established financial planners and passed them onto new recruits in a bid to attract more numbers across AXA dealer groups.

The program will go live again for a finite period in the second half of 2004 according to AXA national manager Discovery program, Michael Meysztowicz.

Advisers across the group’s Charter and AXA Financial Planning (AXAFP) dealer firms will be given a six week window, four weeks more than the two weeks afforded to them last year, in which to nominate and then validate those clients they wish to sell.

AXAFP head Paul Robertson says the first run of the project was warmly received by planners and resulted in 155 practices participating and 42 additional advisers joining across both groups.

Robertson says the initiative allows advisers to consolidate their client base, while for others it provides an exit strategy for those close to retirement.

“It’s more for advisers wanting to narrow the focus of their client base, some of these guys have got 3,000 clients and are worried that with FSR [Financial Services Reform] they might have to offer each client a review, and as they don’t have the resources to do this, they’re offloading some clients,” Robertson says.

This, Robertson says, allows less experienced planners seeking to set up their own planning business the opportunity to do so by buying up these client lists.

AXA, which now has close to 900 advisers across both its Charter and AXAFP dealer groups, estimates its planners provide services to in excess of 500,000 clients.

The first run of the Discovery program was offered to 450 principals across both dealer groups, and of these 318 expressed interest to take part in the scheme using the buyer of last resort principle to sell and acquire clients.