Boutiques may attract Count and PIS financial planners


The Boutique Financial Planning Principals Group (BFPPG) has identified an opportunity for growth in the current market from large licensees such as Count and Professional Investment Services (PIS).
There may be many current Count representatives who will not wish to become Commonwealth Bank employees, while manyrepresentatives from larger non-bank licensees such as PIS would love to have their own Australian Financial Services Licence group president Claude Santucci told the annual BFPPG conference in Brisbane.
Both Santucci and several conference delegates expressed a view that has also been publicly stated by the likes of DKN chief executive Phil Butterworth that the current round of reforms would make it difficult for mid-tier groups to continue, and will mean licensees will either need to be very big or very small.
Santucci also expressed a need to focus more on professionalism, and to support the Financial Planning Association's push to professionalism.
"We don't have the resources and the money of the big institutions," Santucci said.
"We need to be smarter and more professional. We have a great opportunity to grab that space," he said.
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