A chartered course

Charter Financial Planning’s growth in advisers is partly due to the success of keeping its existing advisers, former national manager Bruce Birchall says.

“Our retention rates have been very good and we have been achieving a 93 per cent satisfaction rating from our advisers when they were surveyed recently,” he says.

“But we are also attracting advisers from a number of areas.”

Birchall says the Discovery program, where AXA buys the C and D clients from existing planning practices and repackages them for on-selling, has attracted new advisers into Charter.

“We have created 100 new businesses in AXA financial planning groups during the past two years,” he says.

“We have also attracted advisers wanting to join Charter because of its strong brand.”

Birchall confirmed the dealer group has recruited 33 new advisers.

“We have also attracted advisers who liked our value proposition. During the year we have had very few advisers leaving Charter,” he says.

The dealer group now has 424 authorised representatives, which is an increase of almost nine per cent increase on the previous year

According to Birchall, many advisers have found getting FSR licences a simple process and that has encouraged them to leave dealer groups and operate independently.

“Under FSR, getting a licence is easy, but the requirements for maintaining the licence are onerous, which is perhaps why we have been very successful in retaining our advisers,” he says.

Charter is continuing to grow its adviser numbers with a steady inflow from other dealer groups, Birchall says.