AXA to lose 120 advisers after raising bar on education

AXAexpects to lose over 120 advisers from its dealer groups as a result of Policy Statement 146 requirements and the introduction of raised education and compliance standards.

AXA national dealer group manager Andrew Waddell says he expects to lose about 60 advisers this year, in addition to the 60 lost last year. This follows news that the group will lose 30 per cent of advisers from its Altus dealer group.

The Altus planners will leave in December when the dealer group is closed down, with the rest transitioning to eitherAXA Financial PlanningorCharter.

At the same time, Waddell says AXA’s Discovery Program — designed to buy clients from established planners and pass them to new recruits — will seed 50 new advisers with 50,000 clients by the end of the year.

Waddell says AXA is targeting quality advisers rather than solely growing adviser numbers for the sake of it, preferring to aim for around 1,000 highly productive, educated and compliant advisers in three to four years time.

The details emerged as Waddell launched AXA’s new national dealer group program, involving a ‘no-bias’ fee model for its advisers as reported byMoney Management. Waddell says the model combines with the group’s adviser and client portability to focus on being a full service offering to advisers.

In contrast, Waddell saysAMPis likely to present any potential buyer with a significant acquisition risk, due to its tied adviser model not allowing advisers to shift dealers and take their clients with them.

Waddell says such a model would be hard to sustain, and would find it difficult to attract advisers, likening it to the “Hotel California — where you can check in any time you like but you can never leave”.

The comments follow reports last week that National Australia Bank was in discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over a possible takeover of AMP, later denied by the ACCC.