Fiducian expands franchise

Fiducian Financial Services, a subsidiary group of Fiducian Portfolio Services, is on the verge of signing up 11 financial services franchises in the next few days.

Fiducian general manager Indy Singh says there are another 52 groups who have expressed interest in joining the Fiducian fold.

The new planning groups join the 15 adviser shareholder groups (made up of 55 planners) who invested in Fiducian Portfolio Services prior to its float late last year. Those planners do not trade under the Fiducian banner nor are they obliged to support Fiducian in their own practices. The franchises on the other hand, will operate under the Fiducian name.

Singh says franchising the Fiducian banner is part of a three-pronged strategy to build the Fiducian business which he founded in 1996.

Fiducian has set itself a target of 100 planning practices operating under the Fiducian banner across Australia. Singh says the franchising is an extension of the strategy which was outlined in the prospectus to list on the ASX.

"We need more planner groups to be added to the Fiducian fold for us to grow and to build on Fiducian financial services. This will be the cornerstone of our success," Singh says.

At present, the franchises are free of entry charges, but once the target of 100 throughout Australia is met, which Singh says he is confident of achieving, then Fiducian may consider putting a cash value on the franchises.

The other two areas of Fiducian's strategy are administration and funds management. For administration, which includes Fiducian's existing services of wrap and superannuation, Singh says millions of dollars are being invested to develop software to enable planners to consolidate data and manage client accounts. Additionally, Fiducian will be entering new territory in administration in designing software for two new business areas: corporate super and DIY.

"We are making major administration developments; we're investing a lot of money into it and hope to come up with the best administration software of its kind in Australia," Singh says.

He expects the administration development to be finalised by September, but expects to enter the corporate super market as early as the middle of the year.

The third area of expansion is the funds management. Singh says with $500 million under administration, the company now has sufficient money to spread through a significant number of fund managers fort its manage-the manager investment style.