Suncorp-owned dealer group Guardian Advice has launched a new succession planning strategy, which will help Baby Boomer advisers transition to retirement, while attracting the younger generation of planners to the dealer group.
Head of Guardian Simon Harris said at a media briefing yesterday that the dealer group had already reduced the average age of its adviser base from 58 to 49 in the last two years, hoping the new offering would attract more Generation X and Y advisers to the business.
The new strategy will see Guardian partner, on a minority basis, with retiring practice principals to create a smooth transition of the wealth management business to Generation X and Y advisers by allowing them access to capital and ownership.
"There are a lot of Baby Boomers that are getting ready to retire and the challenge that we found in the industry is that those advisers have been so successful over the years that they've now got very big, very highly valued businesses that Generation X and Y advisers aren't able to digest," Harris said.
The new succession planning strategy would also tie in with the dealer group's buyer-of-last-resort arrangements, whereby Guardian would buy large client books developed by retiring advisers and offer them in smaller packages to younger advisers.
The new generation of advisers would also receive mentoring from senior principals at Guardian and a "model office".
"So they'll get office space and mentoring opportunity through working with a senior adviser, but they're also going to have a book of business and some clients that they can work with," Harris said. "If we tie that in with our Future Business Leaders course that we launched 18 months ago — that's our formalised mentoring program for younger advisers."
Harris also said the dealer group remained ahead of its three-year strategy to grow adviser numbers to 200 by 2015. Guardian currently has 160 advisers and will offer refuge to between 50 and 60 advisers coming out of the AAA Financial Intelligence licence cancellation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
