Fastest growing dealer groups: PIS looks at past growth for future direction
Almost seven years ago Robbie Bennetts met with the founding accountants and financial planners who were to become the first advisers withinProfessional Investment Services(PIS).
Bennetts says there were five advisers and seven accountancy practice representatives in the meeting as well as four support staff.
By August this year when the group celebrates its next and seventh birthday, advisers will number nearly 1,300 and support staff will have grown to a stage where they are now divided into teams and departments instead of individuals.
It has been a rapid rise for PIS, which in the 1999Money ManagementTop 100 Dealer’s Survey had 270 planners, 440 in 2000, 1,109 in 2001 and 1,284 last year.
Even discounting the massive growth between 2000 and 2001, which Bennetts says was the result of the integration of theIFMAandBlueprint Portfolio Servicesadvisory groups after purchasing them fromNorwich Union, the group has still managed to add about 170 advisers each year.
Bennetts says that type of growth does result in an increased focus on the group by regulators, but as part of its growth has built a compliance team of a dozen people and spends more than $1.5 million per year on that part of the business alone.
Of the total number of advisers in the group, about 90 per cent operate under the PIS banner.
Bennetts says the group has moved beyond its home state of Queensland and now has a strong presence across the eastern states, but is bulking up further afield.
He says Western Australia has seen some of the greatest growth followed by South Australia and Tasmania and this is likely to increase as the group embarks on a push to gain a greater presence.
“We are returning to a growth phase and are in a predatory mode. We have the funds and are actively seeking groups to buy,” Bennetts says.
He also says the group does not have to look far, with a number of practices approaching them each month seeking admission, but PIS has also found that its provision of a range of back-office services to other advisory groups has also lifted its profile.
According to Bennetts, PIS supplies wholesale services such as marketing and business development, compliance and administrative assistance to 27 other groups.
He says other drivers for growth include advisers being able to take an equity stake in the parent company and the absence of institutional ownership, yet Bennetts argues these are all part of a bigger picture.
“The value proposition of the business is good. We deliver business coaching, commission and fees program, new sources of income and so forth to advisers to ensure they will grow their own businesses. If a planner is not busy we will create new business for them,” he says.
Despite the growth, Bennetts says the group still has work to do and recently applied for its new Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) in preparation for the March 2004 deadline for the implementation of the Financial Services Reform Act.
“After the Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA) report there were questions asked of all big dealers, but we remain confident in the group but understand no one is bullet proof.”
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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