ING expands service focus to third party advisers

INGis setting its sights on the independent third-party planning market, with plans to grow its business beyond its aligned dealer groups through the launch of a back-office service scheduled for later this year.

The initiative, to be called ING Venture Independent Business Solutions, will assist those small dealers with individual planners who are aiming to remain independent after the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA) is enforced next March.

“This is for the independent market, for groups that are independent and small and want to remain that way,” says head of independent markets ING, Grant Pearson.

Pearson says while the project is not yet complete, he is reluctant to reveal too much about the offering, though he did indicate that it will be “very different to a dealer proposition, and it’s certainly not the usual dealer-to-dealer type of service offering”.

“This part of the market is very fractured. There are a lot of very good specialists out there filling the space for boutique needs very well and this [Venture] is harnessing their prowess in a collaborative type of way and bringing it all together to provide something of high value to these independents,” he says.

ING has three aligned dealer groups —RetireInvest, Tandem Financial Advice and Millennium 3 — and Pearson says the new service will not come at a cost to the aligned groups.

“We still expect our aligned dealer groups to receive the most resources and services and that will absolutely continue as they’re our flagships. It’s not us trying to change anything, we’re just trying to supply a service to market that we think is going to be very strong in the years to come.”

He is also reluctant to reveal the contractual nature of the new product, such as whether signatory planners will be obliged to increase ING’s book value in any way.