PIS restructures, cuts roles
Dealer group Professional Investment Services (PIS) has announced a restructure which will see a number of departures including state managers.
The changes have been outlined in a memo sent to staff today in which the company has said the intention is to simplify and clarify its organisational structure "to position us best to deliver on our service vision for our clients".
It claimed the decisions had not been motivated by cost cutting, and while it had tried hard to minimise direct impact on staff "the fact is that four staff members have had their positions eliminated as part of the structural realignment".
The memo then went on to point to the removal of state manager positions and highlight a regional model based on New South Wales and Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and Queensland and northern NSW.
It also said advice would be separated into three individual and functional areas or departments - client engagement, client recruitment and client strategy and solutions.
The announcement said each regional leader would be responsible for leading the Practice Development Managers (PDM) and Practice Support Officers (PSO) in their respective territories. It said the state manager title would be eliminated "as we flatten the organisation".
"Michael Trist's role as state manager in Victoria will be eliminated as part of this realignment and Michael will be leaving the firm," the announcement said.
It said the others to be leaving the firm would be regional risk leaders Anne Johnston and Peter Nielsen - although the company was not getting out of the risk business - and Darren Joseph.
The announcement said the organisation had a number of locations where it had shared roles split between Professional Investment Services and Associated Advisory Practices (AAP), and that all shared roles would become either full-time PIS or full-time AAP, resulting in the loss of Darren Joseph's role in Western Australia.
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