Dealers go for quality

Professional Investment Services (PIS) and Count Financial have emerged as Australia’s fastest growing dealer groups in Money Management’s Top 100 Trends report.

An increase of 115 advisers since last year means PIS is the fastest growing in terms of adviser numbers, while Count has the fastest growing funds under advice (FUA) figure, which in the last five years has more than tripled from $5 billion in 2003 to more than $15.5 billion this year.

However, in a ratio of FUA to adviser numbers, ABN AMRO Morgans is on average handling the highest FUA per adviser, with this year’s figure of $30 billion coming from less than 450 advisers.

Assuming this figure is made up in full by client money and not insurance-related funds, ABN AMRO Morgans also blows away its competitors in terms of the ratio of its client base (320,000) to total FUA.

For example, PIS, Australia’s largest dealer group, boasts 1,444 advisers, 600,000 clients and $15 billion FUA, while this year’s top distributor, AMP Financial Planning (AMPFP), has $41 billion FUA, 1,222 advisers and 700,000 clients.

However, these results are reflective of each individual dealer group’s business strategy.

ABN AMRO Morgans director of adviser and marketing services David Codey said while the dealer group did not intentionally set out to have the highest FUA/adviser ratio, this could be the result of its strategy to employ and train quality advisers.

“Our objective is to grow our adviser base, but we don’t have a number to grow it to — I know a lot of dealer groups do, but we certainly don’t,” he said.

“We just look for quality advisers, and we have a training program internally which is also developing younger advisers.

“We believe if we look after our clients, FUA will look after itself.”

PIS chief executive Robbie Bennetts said maintaining its position as Australia’s largest dealer group in terms of adviser numbers was an important part of the company’s strategy to expand overseas.

“It is very prestigious to be able to say you’re the largest in the country,” he said.

“It has actually been very helpful for this group when we’ve gone to offshore markets, because they do see us as the largest.”

Taking a slightly different position, AMPFP managing director Michael Guggenheimer said that strategically, the breadth of the dealer group’s distribution resources was most important.

“It’s more about having the appropriate reach in our distribution to, in turn, be able to provide advice to more clients in the marketplace,” he said.