BT signals new advice dealership intent

Bt FinancialGroup has delivered the strongest indication to date it plans to launch a new dealer group, with the Westpac Bank-owned fund manager signing up former RetireInvest chief executive officer Mark Spiers.

Spiers, who stepped down as head of RetireInvest in October 2001 to become ING regional manager Asia/Pacific market development, joins the group as senior manager distribution, strategy and development and reports to head of distribution and marketing, Rob Coombe.

Spiers’ initial mandate will be to review the firm’s existing dealer group operations and formulate succession planning strategies for Westpac planners, ahead of working with Coombe on formulating a new distribution strategy for the group.

“Firstly, he will help us on the operations side, secondly on strategies to help us retain existing planners and thirdly, as we remain interested in building or buying distribution, to help us grow our advice offering,” Coombe says.

The group has previously indicated it is considering a range of options as part of an overall strategic review of the investment group and that this could include the launch of a new dealer group.

However, the appointment of Spiers is the first tangible signal to the market that the firm will kick off a new dealer group — be it through acquisition or organic growth.

“If there are tactical opportunities that come up in the interim, then he will consider those, but we certainly don’t have any aggressive strategies in that space at this stage,” Coombe says.

Spiers’ ‘pulling power’ in terms of attracting new advisers if BT opted to take the organic route may include some of his ex-staff at RetireInvest. However, this could prove more difficult than it would have a few months ago, as the ING-owned dealer firm started delivering its new franchise agreement and all commercial arrangements to proprietors last week, after concluding its ongoing discussions with the dealer group’s adviser representation arm, the Proprietors Advisory Council.

After leaving ING in early 2002, Spiers later joined the Australian Stock Exchange as project director of its now abandoned back-office transaction processing and communications initiative — FundConnect.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, BT formally appointed the interim head of its financial planning and advice (FP&A) business, Justin Greiner, permanently into the role, four months after he took over from Scott Walters in an acting capacity.