Inside the Dealers 12/10 – Apogee sets its name and sights high

When the National bought MLC earlier this year, LendLease Financial Planning had to look for a new name — and fast. After some angst, the group took on the handle “Apogee” meaning zenith or highest point. But, as Julie Bennett reports, the name is about the only thing about the group that has changed.

Apogee Financial Planning's general manager Wayne Handley is the first to admit that the group's name change raised a few eyebrows.

"We copped some flack," he admits, "and it's understandable. We are quite conservative by nature and it's not a conservative name. It's quite different - but so was Apple. Our network has received it very graciously."

And he is adamant that nothing else about the group will change.

"It is the same business, the same people and the same service - that hasn't changed and it won't."

The business Handley talks about is six years old. It has 320 planners, servicing an estimated 150,000 clients across the country. The planners all operate their own practices under a contractual arrangement which means that as a dealer, Apogee's focus is firmly fixed on the business needs of its planners.

"Our advisers are our business," says Handley. "So we have a very heavy focus on catering to their businesses. We help to make them better business people, because the better they are the better they will service the public and ultimately, that means better business for us."

To help their planners build such businesses Apogee has introduced a completely voluntary business planning process.

The four to six week process involves the planner sitting down with an external, Apogee appointed MBA consultant and a business development manager and going through an intensive business planning exercise.

During the process, the planner's practice is put under the microscope. Cash flows, balance sheets, profit and loss statements and a plethora of other information are examined to determine both how well the practice is operating and what it needs to do to be profitable in the future.

At the end of the process, the planner has an integrated financial model and a written document, providing them with a blueprint for managing their business with Apogee. This helps the planner to monitor the performance of the practice from that point on.

"We are an adviser focussed dealership," Handley explains. "We believe that if we increase the professional capabilities of our planners through business acumen and processes, that passes on to the public."

"What we are trying to do is to make sure our planners have the skills required and are well-resourced to service their clients."

But it's not just a case of managing from above. Apogee planners from each state sit on the group's national board of advice. In Handley's words, "They have an enormous amount of input into what we do."

Planners decide for themselves whether to charge fees or collect commissions or a combination of both. Apogee offers a scale of fees for advisers to choose from and the matter is decided between the client and the adviser according to the laws of the land. Decisions about rebating commissions are also decided between the client and the adviser and true to its 'business manager' label,

Apogee does not dictate which markets its planners should target.

"We cater for the markets our advisers choose to be in. We have a number of planners operating at the very top end of the market and we cater for those needs by providing specific upmarket services. Some advisers service mums and dads and we help them with that too. It's the adviser's choice," Handley says.

One thing Apogee planners don't do is service the lower end of the market. "No one is catering to that market because they can't afford to," says Handley. "The 25-year-old junior executives in their first potentially lucrative roles will be neglected until their mid-30s. It's a shame because they need financial planning and risk management and there's no-one to service them."

"But the truth today is there are only quality advisers left in the market - and they are too busy managing their existing businesses to move into that market."

Handley believes what differentiates Apogee from the pack is both its attention to the planner's practice and the group's ability to cover the whole spectrum of financial planning - including risk management.

"The beauty of what we have on offer is our systems and processes cater for both financial planning and risk management. A lot of financial planners neglect the risk management side of the process," Handley says.

Training and education is handled in-house in state branches and offices across the country. Business development days are run at quarterly intervals and training courses for specific topics like gearing, for example, are run as required.

While not actively out on the recruitment trail, Handley says Apogee is always seeking opportunities to develop new business relationships.

"We would like to do business with all the finance professions, including accounting. We want to develop new business relationships and we are always looking for quality planners," he says.

But to make the grade, new recruits must already have a good track record of running a successful practice.

"We're looking for people who want to grow their businesses," says Handley.

"People who are looking for a bit more from a dealer, people with a long term view, people who share our philosophies. We're welcome them and we'd love to talk to them."

Vital Statistics:

Name: Apogee Financial Planning (formerly LendLease Financial Planning)No. of advisers: 320

Funds under administration: $3 billion plus

Ownership: the National Australia Group

Founded: 1994

Location: Head office Melbourne and offices in all other major capital cities

Names of key personnel: General Manager/Director: Wayne Handley; Head of Research: Janice Sengupta

Position in Top 100: 7th

Research: Van Eyk, Assirt

Master trust/wrap service: Flexiplan

Next conference: March/April, Fremantle