Bendigo Wealth’s scaled advice phone service, launched in February, has doubled its roster from five wealth consultants to 10.
Bendigo Wealth's head of wealth markets Alex Tullio said that number should increase to 12 by the end of this month and the group is now working on further recruitment in Sydney and Melbourne.
The next intake of consultants will also include financial advisers that can give full advice over the phone, which will particularly assist customers in remote locations, she said.
Tullio attributed the rapid take-up of the service to pent-up demand from customers who were looking for simple piece-by-piece financial advice rather than full holistic advice, particularly in rural areas where the bank does not have a financial adviser positioned (currently Bendigo has around 470 branches and 68 full service advisers).
Bendigo Wealth’s senior manager, strategic partners and wholesale, Diego Del Rosso said the main driver of the demand had so far been superannuation-related.
“Conversations are around the appropriateness of exiting their super fund, and consolidation is a big part of that conversation,” Del Rosso said.
Tullio said an added benefit of having those more holistic conversations was that there are some who will have more complex needs, so in a way the service is vetting customers who can then be referred to a full service adviser if needed.
Tullio said the service is mostly being promoted through branches and financial planners in the field, while there has been some interest from the independent financial adviser (IFA) space as well.
Del Rosso said Bendigo Wealth is currently in talks with a couple of groups around providing a solution for their C and D or low super balance customers, potentially running campaigns for them via the wealth consultants’ team.
“We’re working through just how that’s going to work and we’re talking to one group in particular where we could potentially pilot that with their customer base,” he said.
