Ipac makes Qld push

IpacSecuritiesis expanding its business reach to cover the Brisbane financial planning market, after announcing plans to open an office there this month.

The new office is an expansion on Ipac’s current Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle operations, and part of the group’s goal to be “national in scale and pre-eminent in advice”, says chief executive Peeyush Gupta.

According to Gupta, while he believes the group already offers good advice there is still a way to go towards offering it on a national scale.

National head of Ipac financial planning Sally Manion says the group has always had a core business base and corporate partnerships in Brisbane, but they had been servicing the area from other locations.

The group is sending senior financial planner Brad Lawler to Brisbane to head up the office.

The move into Brisbane comes as the group is considering recruiting new planners, a number of whom have taken an interest in the group in recent months.

The group says that an increased number of planners reviewing their own dealer relationships have been enquiring about joining the group.

Gupta believes this may be for a variety of reasons, including the recent outcomes of theAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC)/Australian Consumers’ Association (ACA) survey, increasing compliance issues, as well as issues of ownership in dealer groups.

“This year has been a real change from last year. It’s tough times in the market and lots of planners are really starting to look around (at other dealer groups),” Gupta says.

“With the ASIC/ACA report there have been reputation issues,” he says.

Ipac’s simultaneous push into the Asian financial planning market, however, is still held up by bureaucratic red tape, with the group continuing to wait for regulatory approval.

“We’ve already made a major drive into Singapore and Hong Kong, and operationally we’re only one or two months away from being up and running,” Gupta says.