Business as usual for AMP and AXA advisers
No new licensee arrangements have been discussed following the AMP/AXA merger, said AMP Financial Services managing director Craig Meller (pictured).
Yesterday AMP announced its integration plans regarding product and platforms. However, when it comes to AMP and AXA-aligned financial planners it appears to be business as usual.
“In advice and distribution we are maintaining our multi-brand approach, and we are going to continue to work with our planners and advisers to ensure they have the support to grow their businesses,” said Meller.
“We haven’t changed the terms and conditions of any of the financial advisers in any of the AXA or AMP licensees.”
Meller said when AMP looked at the offers available to planners from the two different groups there were a number of aspects that could easily be made available across licensees.
“The practice finance capability that we developed within AMP Bank has been very successful in helping AMP financial planners grow their business,” he said. “In looking at that offer we found that it is much more attractive than what the AXA planners have been able to source for themselves.”
He said AMP had a ‘broad’ line of credit assigned for financial planners to help with their growth strategies, although he would not provide any figures.
Another area to which AMP hoped to add value was helping AXA planners grow their businesses through the recruitment of higher quality financial advisers. He said recently one of the adviser graduates from AMP’s Horizons Academy agreed to join up with an AXA practice rather than an AMP practice.
“We think that is an area where we’ll be able to help the AXA planners grow their businesses much more into the future,” said Meller.
Meller said that while the market for financial planners was ‘noisy’ at the moment, the number of planners leaving the AMP group was not out of the ordinary.
“There are always a small number of planners moving from AMP and AXA, but also from the competition into AMP and AXA,” he said. “I would describe the market environment at the moment as ‘noisy’, but the movement is well within what we would call ordinary movement in the course of an ordinary year.”
Meller would not disclose the numbers of planners leaving and joining, adding that those numbers would only be released in the half-yearly report.
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