Tower sheds jobs, chops in-house planners
The New Zealand basedTowergroup has shut down its in-house salaried financial planning division, Tower Financial Consultants, and shed a total of 70 jobs across all business units in Australia as part of dramatic cost cutting measures announced yesterday.
The measures will see Tower reduce its recurring management costs in Australia from $102 million to $85 million.
Tower will also sell its online annuity business, AdviserBlue, merge the Tower Managed Funds stand alone business back into the wider Tower Australia group and downscale its corporate superannuation administration business as part of the changes.
The moves come only a week after Tower reported a $32 million writedown of its Australian financial planning business, Bridges Financial Services, to record a $68.9 million loss for the year to September 30, 2002.
The loss, the first ever for the trans-Tasman group as a listed company, compares to a $68.7 million profit for the year to September 2001.
Tower’s acting chief executive, Jim Minto, says the latest changes are part of a program to “more tightly focus” its Australian life and investment businesses.
The 70 job losses come on top of 50 positions already cut by Tower in October.
They also follow the departure of both Tower’s long standing group managing director James Boonzaier and group chief operating executive Ken Boag earlier this year.
Recommended for you
Professional services group AZ NGA has made its first acquisition since announcing a $240 million strategic partnership with US manager Oaktree Capital Management in September.
As Insignia Financial looks to bolster its two financial advice businesses, Shadforth and Bridges, CEO Scott Hartley describes to Money Management how the firm will achieve these strategic growth plans.
Centrepoint Alliance says it is “just getting started” as it looks to drive growth via expanding all three streams of advisers within the business.
AFCA’s latest statistics have shed light on which of the major licensees recorded the most consumer complaints in the last financial year.
