Reinventing the wheel at Genesys

It’s back to basics at Genesys Wealth Advisers as the group tries to leave the distractions of multiple ownership changes behind and refocus on the needs of member firms.

Relatively new chief John Saint is trying to shift the focus of a group that has been "a little more inwardly focused in recent times", following changes in ownership which saw the group sold to Challenger and then sold again to AXA.

"There's been turnover in systems and processes to embed those changes and during that time it took some of the executive management focus away from member firm relationships,” Saint said.

That distraction appears to have resulted in a number of member firms defecting to the business established by the former chief of the group, Ray Miles.

“I concede that a number of member firms have been disenfranchised in the past, and with lots of activity from others to get people to move, I can see why they did,” Saint said.

“I don’t agree with it obviously, but that’s their choice.”

Saint said on 30 June, 2010, that the group had 335 advisers in 150 member firms — including 34 under the Quadrant Securities banner. He said that was a fall in adviser numbers from about 360 at the end of 2009, but couldn’t put a figure on how many member firms had left.

“There’s no doubt that we’ve had an up and down last six months or so,” Saint said.

Saint said his focus this year had been working on improving the focus on member firms, including making a commitment to visit every member firm by the end of the year.

Genesys advisers made clear some of their frustrations at their annual conference in February — in particular with the Genesys research team. Many of the group’s head office functions have now been merged with AXA teams, including research, compliance and marketing. Saint said advisers had been happy with the result.

The group will also be disbanding its head office in Sydney’s northwest suburb of Epping, moving to the city by September.

The advisers’ frustrations were aired through the national advisory council, and there have been some changes there as well, with chairman Andy Murdock stepping down.

While Saint said the distractions of recent acquisitions were now behind them, he did acknowledge the level of uncertainty about AXA’s future ownership.

He said while he couldn’t promise the new owner wouldn’t move the goalposts yet again — including changing Approved Product Lists, systems and processes — he remained confident that the Genesys he was trying to build would remain intact.

“They [the new owners] can do that if they want to, but I think it would be a silly thing to do,” Saint said.

“It is a risk — but why would they pay bucketloads for these businesses if they’re just going to damage them all?”