Expanded FSP set for April launch
Ross Bowden
ING is on course to launch its new Financial Services Partners (FSP) dealer group by the end of April, following completion of the incorporation of its former boutique Tandem Financial Advice.
FSP, which ING bought in November last year, will comprise more than 100 individual practices and 222 authorised representatives, with $5.5 billion in funds under administration.
The expanded dealer group, which will include Tandem’s 80 advisers in more than 20 practices, will be among the top 20 largest in Australia, according to ING executive director for aligned distribution groups Ross Bowden.
He said “putting Tandem into FSP has enabled us to create quite a sizeable financial planning group and brand in Australia — similar in size to groups like RetireInvest”.
He expected that “virtually all the practices within Tandem, bar two or three, which we knew about in December, will come across to FSP under a single agreement”.
Communication on incorporating the Tandem practices had been continuing throughout the three-month period since the purchase of the FSP Group for a reported $50 million.
“We always expected it would take three or four months to go to all the practices and talk to them about the value proposition FSP would offer them.”
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