RI Advice Group takes stake in Miles' Fortnum

ING-owned RI Advice Group (RI) has taken a 20 per cent stake in Ray Miles' new dealer group, Fortnum Financial Group.

Miles, who is executive chairman of Fortnum, said the deal would provide the fledgling dealer group with institutional backing without compromising its offering or adviser equity model. Miles said staff would own 20 per cent of the group and practices the remaining 60 per cent.

The deal is understood to extend only as far the supply of adviser support services — such as technology and research — and will not extend to investment product targets. Miles told Money Management the group would remain independent and would manage its own Approved Product List.

Miles has strong ties with a number of the RI executive team. RI chief executive Paul Campbell was Miles’ chief operating officer at Genesys (the dealer group Miles once led).

Many of the members of RI’s head office and research team formerly worked at Genesys, among them respected risk researcher Col Fullagar and investment researcher Dinyar Irani. RI also hired former Genesys researchers Cameron Sinclair, Dan Miles, and Deigo Mainou last year.

Campbell backed Miles’ adviser recruitment skills, pointing to the scale and growth benefits he expected the deal to bring to RI. Miles has not formally signed on any advisers or practices to date but, even after being out of the game for years, he continues to attract strong support from advisers.