Godfrey Pembroke set for shake up

Godfrey Pembroke Practice Development Group (GPPDG) is in negotiations with the dealer group’s management that may result in significant changes to the dealer group’s proposition and service offering.

Chairman Lawrie O’Neill, also a Perth-based Godfrey Pembroke adviser, said meetings scheduled for this month would “review the position of Godfrey Pembroke in terms of its brand, service offering and fees”.

O’Neill said the meetings would be held between the GPPDG, which represents the franchises through its own legal constitution, and Godfrey Pembroke management and external management consultants.

The meetings have been called because GPPDG is “at the point where we feel it’s an appropriate time to do a complete review of where we are as a dealer group”, he said.

O’Neill would not comment on the potential upshot of the scheduled meetings for fear of “pre-empting the outcome”.

However, he said the dealer group “would have a different service offering to go to the marketplace with, and also some different products”.

“From the outside looking in, it won’t look very different, but there’ll be a significant change in the way we operate internally,” he said.

“I also think there’ll be at least a section of the business that will take on a different look and have a different feel to it.”

O’Neill did volunteer that the “two book-ends” of the new service offering will be based around estate planning and “lifestyle visioning”.

“These are the two areas where we can add significantly to our offering for clients,” he said.

He added that the dealer group would “tap into a lot of work already done by the bank (Godfrey Pembroke owner NAB) in these areas” in implementing the new service offering.