BT reacts to Count Financial play
BT Financial Group has expressed its disappointment at a direct approach by Count Financial to Securitor and Magnitude advisers.
BT group general manager, advice, Mark Spiers said he believed a letter written to Securitor and Magnitude advisers by Count Financial chief executive David Lane actually belittled financial advisers.
"It belittles the critical role planners have been playing in making decisions about the future of the industry," Spiers said.
Lane's letter to Securitor and Magnitude advisers highlighted the size of sign-on fees paid by BT to attract advisers from Count and said "we believe that such payments, if they are not accompanied by similar payments to existing advisers, fail to sufficiently recognise the loyalty and growth potential of existing adviser firms".
Lane's letter then went on to invite Securitor and Magnitude advisers to contact him to "discuss opportunities to grow your business with Count".
Reacting to the letter, Spiers said Count appeared to have overlooked the current dislocated and fragmented nature of the financial planning industry and suggested that the focus on BT was unwarranted in circumstances where Count practices had also departed to other planning groups.
"We're simply going out into the market with a strong offer and it is natural that people will make decisions based on the attractiveness of that offer," he said.
Spiers said that given the amount the Commonwealth Bank had paid to acquire Count, their disappointment at the loss of some planning practices was understandable.
However he said the newly formed BT Select represented a new, unencumbered model which did not take the interests of planners for granted.
BT is describing BT Select as a service provider with a licence-agnostic approach.
Both BT and Count have acknowledged that around 10 former Count firms have shifted camp to BT, but Lane signaled to Money Management that Count has also been successful in recruiting a number of new businesses.
Count has suggested BT has paid some practices as much as $500,000 in transition fees and has acknowledged that it, too, would be prepared to pay fees, but only based on the actual cost of transition.
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