PIS takes on stock broking
Professional Investment Services (PIS) has taken the plunge into retail stock broking through a deal signed with online broker E*Trade.
Under the terms of the deal announced at last weekend's IFMA conference on the Gold Coast, selected IFMA and PIS advisers will be able to execute share trades online via E*Trade's premium service E*Trade Pro. PIS will also act as a wholesaler of the service for other dealer groups looking to add broking to their armoury of client services. It has set up a separate company, the Australian Direct Share Service, to facilitate the process.
PIS has been piloting the system for the past few months and will be rolling the system out to a select group of its advisers in the next few months.
PIS director Bill de Steiger says the deal with E*Trade offers a number of opportunities for the business.
"Firstly it allows our advisers the opportunity to offer a broader range of services to clients," he says.
"It also allows us to broaden our revenue base by being a wholesaler of the broking service to other dealer groups. Thirdly, it means we can attract stock brokers to PIS by providing the infrastructure for their operations."
De Steiger says there has already been interest from stock brokers to join the group and a number of dealer groups had already expressed interest in adopting the system for their advisers.
The deal with PIS is E*Trade's first move into the financial planning market. Its competitors, especially Sanford Securities and Hartley Poynton subsidiary JDV, have already made significant inroads into the financial planning market.
It is believed about 20 dealer groups have already signed deals with online stock brokers.
E*Trade is one of the top three online traders in the market, with 57,500 Australian and New Zealand customers.
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