Futuro brand may survive under AMP
The Futuro Financial Services brand may survive under the ownership of AMP, despite the plan to have its financial planners eventually licensed under Charter Financial Planning.
AMP has invested in Futuro Financial Services, taking an initial 10 per cent minority stake with a plan to take full ownership of the business in five years.
Futuro will continue to operate under its own licence during the initial stages of the transaction, after which its financial advisers will be offered a transition to Charter Financial Planning.
Futuro director Dennis Bashford said it was very important to the group's planners that the brand's culture remains after the acquisition.
"The culture can remain within the group; they will be authorised under Charter, which means the licence will disappear," Bashford said. "The brand may or may not."
AMP will make a range of its services available to Futuro, including its practice management capability, succession solutions, compliance systems and regime, advice documentation, back office support and its technology base.
For Bashford, services offered by a large organisation will become increasingly important in the new regulatory environment.
"It will be very difficult for some of the smaller dealers to keep pace with the regulatory, expertise and IT requirements," Bashford added.
This move by AMP is the latest in a string of acquisitions the financial services industry has seen last year, with some of the largest non-aligned dealer groups having been purchased by large financial institutions.
The two businesses had already built a close relationship, according to AMP's director of financial advice network Andrew Waddell and Futuro's Dennis Bashford.
Futuro Financial Services has 80 financial advisers working under its licence, with $2 billion in funds under advice.
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