Practice Management – Matrix on track to build its own profit

Helping to build a fund manager only to see it sold to a third party was one of the reasons why the Matrix Financial Group was formed in June last year.

"Matrix arose out of a number of advisers who used to write about 60 per cent of Prudential's risk business," says managing director Allison Dummett.

"People had then joined Colonial wholesale channel, which again has been sold."

"What we had were disgruntled advisers who kept seeing zeros on the cheques for their share in building up Prudential. For some that was after 30 years," Dummett says.

These advisers wanted to remain together as a group, but with an equity holding in a financial services operation. The result has been that all of the property authority holders now own a stake in Matrix.

Some agents chose to stay with Colonial, however, taking out franchises instead of going their own way.

Matrix has 37 proper authority holders in all states except Victoria and Tasmania.

It is a situation the group hopes to rectify soon.

The group only wants planners with turnovers of $200,000-plus to join. The high entry level is to attract top performers and to keep the administration overheads within reasonable limits. Dummett says it is better to have 20 advisers providing $500 million of funds under administration than 200 trying to achieve the same figure.

Both groups are aiming for the same goals, but with a lot less stress on the administration of the group, she adds.

The financial services group has five staff, with areas like research and life-broking outsourced to ThreeSixty.

After one year, Matrix is on track, Dummett says. The company is in a strong capital position at this stage and recorded profit better than its target by 40 per cent.

However, despite the strong financial position at the end of year one, Matrix is issuing another 30 per cent of its shareholding to attract new adviser groups and to develop its services further.