Ex-AIS planners form Trinity pact

Former Adviser Investment Services (AIS) planners Bill O'Sullivan and Debbie Thompson have decided to venture forth on their own, setting up financial planning group Trinity Financial Services.

Trinity opened its doors in Cairns just over a month ago and has transferred all the practices 230 clients to the new group. O'Sullivan had been with AIS for more than seven years and Thompson about five years.

O'Sullivan says the move has been motivated by purely commercial reasons and stresses there is no acrimony between AIS and himself.

"Adviser, and (group chief executive) Wes McMaster were truly professional about the whole process," he says.

"They allowed us to transfer all clients to the new business and in fact helped with the administration in transferring clients."

O'Sullivan and Thompson are the only financial planners among the firm's nine staff which includes a risk adviser and four employed in customer service. The customer service staff are responsible for maintaining client contact and putting together financial strategies for clients in conjunction with O'Sullivan and Thompson.

O'Sullivan says the structure of the business is similar to Phil Guest's highly successful North Sydney-based financial planning business Guest McLeod.

"We are aiming to become tier one financial advisers and one of the key planks of the strategy is to develop a business where if I am not there, no-one notices," he says.

O'Sullivan says the practice's fee-based revenue is more than $750,000 which he expects to increase to more than $1 million in the near future.