Stockford revs up financial planning arm
Stockford has put out to tender a number of its support services to advisers while also hiring high profile former County executive Bruce Garratt to manage its recently acquired dealer groups.
The consolidator is outsourcing services such as research, adviser software, stockbroking and master trust administration, says Stockford general manager of retail services, Mark Rantall.
"Currently we are seeking suppliers for these services and tenders have been issued," he says. "The aim is to have selected a supplier from the tenders by June 30."
Rantall says the service suppliers would be integrated with the company on a staggered basis completed by September 30.
The reasoning behind the move is mainly cost, he admits. "There is no value in setting up all these services when there is expertise out there."
A Stockford manager would oversee each of these bought-in services. Rantall says an example of this is the recent hiring of Steven Blackhall from Merrill Lynch to oversee the research department.
Bruce Garratt is the latest recruit to the expanding team at Stockford. He has been made national dealer group manager, which is a new appointment for the company.
Rantall says that apart from liaising with the dealer groups, Garratt's role will also be to integrate the accountancy groups into the new national dealer group, Stockford Financial Services.
"We will be licensing all planners under the Stockford name and this includes the 75 proper authority holders," Rantall says.
"There is considerable synergy between the two professions and we want to harness that."
Garratt's appointment is seen as a coup for Stockford as he has extensive retail distribution experience gained with HSBC over a number of years. More recently he was head of retail at County until Invesco bought the Melbourne-based manager earlier this year.
As Invesco already had a head of retail, John Ntatsopoulos, it is believed that there was not room for two in the position. Money Management understands that Garratt left on amicable terms when it was confirmed Ntatsopoulos was to remain in his existing role at the fund manager.
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