Premium makes every move count

The creation of a new accountant based dealer group mid last year resulted in a whirl of publicity as some big names struck out on their own. Kate Kachor looks at their progress six months later.

A little more than six months ago financial executive Lewis Waters made a risky decision. Tired of the surroundings of Count Wealth Accountants and his status within the group, Waters departed to start his own group with a number of colleagues.

The new dealer group, Premium Accounting Group was formed with the merger of 10 former Count Wealth Accountant firms. The group includes three firms that were formerly Count top 10 members and seven from the top 50.

"It was an amicable split from Count," Waters says, speaking openly about his past with Count Wealth Accountants.

"When we left, Count managing director Barry Lambert sent out a letter to each of the departing adviser's clients giving them the choice to follow their adviser or be allocated another adviser."

Waters says Count was a very good dealer group for accountants starting up in financial planning but all of the practices that pulled away were experienced and there was nothing further that was really needed from Count.

"There were also issues of ownership when we were asked to pay fully for the shares in the dealer group and there was no discount," Waters says.

"We believed we could set up our own dealer group, and outsource the research, compliance and software."

It is now six months on, and if Waters is having any reservations about the split, he is hiding it well. Since December last year, Premium has appointed it's first managing director, Helen Bridgewood, and is currently in the process of screening a number of potential practices who are keen to join the fold.

Bridgewood joined Premium in December last year with more than 10 years experience within the financial services sector holding executive positions at Bridgepoint and Godfrey Weston as well as having software experience with Visiplan.

"The world of a dealer is something quite different than an individual financial planning business. I came from a large dealer group, Godfrey Weston in those days, and it was over 100 proper authority holders and it was heading to 200 in those days," Bridgewood says excited about her new role.

"I came from the large dealer group to Bridgeport which was a boutique dealer group with the one site. I have seen the world from two different sides, and Premium is somewhere in between the two," she says.

Despite the group still being in the early stages, it has already signed three accounting and financial planning groups.

Last month, Premium signed Sydney based Judd Financial Services and Hart Larwill and Partners. Earlier this month it also picked up Melbourne based accounting group Charlwoods.

"We're not actively ringing up firms. Firms are ringing us all the time. Our dealer group is growing slowly and is manageable," Waters says.

"It's been a nice steady situation where firms are just coming on now. We have spoken to about 25 odd firms, and we've probably knocked back about 20 of those because they didn't meet our criteria," he says.

Waters says Premium's criteria requires that all groups need to be Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA) and have $20 million in funds under management with at least five years experience.

At present Premium has 39 advisers and proper authority holders, with more than 5,000 clients.

According to Waters the structure of Premium is based on a fee for service base, with rebates on commissions.

He says there is no client profile, with members free to target any group as their ideal client.

"Our planners are not employers or franchisees of the dealer group. Planners are either principals or employees of member firms," he says.

"Each of these firms has a service agreement with the dealer for the provision of services such as research, software, technology and prudential compliance."

Other services Premium provides for its clients includes taxation, accounting, auditing, finance and leasing, negative gearing, superannuation, personal and risk insurance and workers compensation management.

Waters says the company's research is partly outsourced to InvestorWeb and Morningstar. He says compliance is also partly outsourced through Accent, with planning software outsourced through Visiplan.

As a dealer the group keeps in contact with its member firms through quarterly full day conferences held in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The sessions are supplemented, throughout the year, by breakfast sessions and half day training sessions and software support groups.

This level of contact is valued highly and Bridgewood says she spent most of her first month with the group visiting the group's member practices, a duty which is crucial to the group's development.

The interstate visits also give Bridgewood an opportunity to introduce herself as well as the group's new software program, Visiplan, to the advisers.

"I have been spending a day or half a day with our member practices. The visits gives the advisers a more personal view of the dealer group," Bridgewood says.

"We want to know what is happening in each individual practice, what they need and what we can do."

Vital Statistics

Premium Accounting Group

Advisers: 39

Funds under administration: 550 million

Ownership: member firms have shares in the group

Founded: June 2000

Key Figures: Helen Bridgewood (managing director), Lewis Waters (director)

Software: Visiplan

Research: Investorweb and Morningstar