The dealer groups that disappeared...

Take a glance through theMoney ManagementTop 100 Dealer Group survey over the last few years and you’re likely to see the same names popping up. But there has been significant consolidation over the past 15 years, with the banks dominating in terms of ownership and groups merging, disappearing and re-emerging under new guises.

One dealer group with high aspirations in the 80s was Wheeler Grace & Pierucci — once the biggest advisory group in the country with ambitious expansion plans including the purchase of Money Managers. It floundered in 1988 and the group was eventually carved up between Michael Grace’s new company Sceptre andRetireInvest. The next year Sceptre was placed in the hands of liquidators, its dealer’s licence revoked and all staff sacked.

Tracking the progress of Bleakleys, the ‘baby’ of David and Carol Bleakley, is an interesting task. First sold in 1991, the Bank of Singapore took full ownership in 1996, only to be bought out by Mercantile Mutual’s Austplanners later the same year.

The group subsequently merged with Advisor Investment Services and the new entity became ING’sPartnership Planning— although not for long.INGmerged it withLynx Financial Servicesand AustAdvisers, renaming the joint enterprise Tandem Financial Services, in the process earning it a place on our ‘fastest shrinking dealer groups’ list for 2003.

Another group to gain a new identity is heavyweight Lend Lease Financial Planning (LLFP), now owned by the National Australia Bank (NAB) throughMLC. In 2000, the bank renamed the group Apogee. As LLFP the group ranked number seven inMoney Management’sTop 100 for 1999, but by 2002 had slipped to number 14.

Other prominent dealer groups of the late 80s and early 90s suffered similar fates.

Bain & Co., bought by Deutsche Bank and renamed Deutsche Bank Financial Planning, was also sold to NAB, Charterbridge Davey was purchased by Royal & Sun Alliance (now Promina) in 2001, KPMG Financial Services was absorbed by St George Private Bank, and Deloitte Financial Services was acquired by Stockford in 2001.

Stockford only came onto the scene in 2000, but the honeymoon was soon over — the group went into voluntary administration earlier this year and was broken up.Investor Groupsnaffled four of the 67 businesses and many principals bought out their own practices.

New dealer groups spawned in recent years include: Guardian Financial Planning, established by Promina in 2001 for risk-based advisers;Aon Financial Planning and Protection, the first dealer group foray for parent Aon in 2000, which has been followed up with Aon Financial Advisor Services and Aon Wealth Management; andLowell Flinders, launched by John Godfrey of Godfrey Pembroke fame and Gwen Fletcher in 2001.

Others sprang up from discontent.Premium Accounting Groupwas formed in 2000 when 10 practices broke away fromCount Wealth Accountants, while nine advisers fromGodfrey Pembrokeset up Berkley Group the same year.

Still more were reborn from former lives. Pacific Rim, which also acquired Platinum Group and Money Planners, becameDeakin Financial Services, whileInscorpmerged withNow Financial Servicesto become Financial Services Partners.

Life has been short for some groups though.Altus Financial Services, established byAXAin 2000, will close at the end of this year, with practices being moved toCharterorAXA Financial Planning.

In 2001, Chapel Road, Saxby Bridge and Harts Australia felt the regulatory heat from theAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC), with all having their dealer licences revoked.

Chapel Road and Saxby Bridge have both successfully appealed to have their licences reinstated this year through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT).