Trust rounds off business restructure

TrustCompany has appointed former Challenger consultant Assyat David to head up its financial services division and complete a group-wide business review which began in April.

David will be responsible for analysing, developing and implementing the strategic direction of the firm’s superannuation and private clients divisions.

In the newly created role, David will also take on the full responsibility for the private clients business unit, which has been without a head since former general manager Steve Murray departed to become chief executive of Tower-owned risk advice firm Pivotal.

On the superannuation side, recently appointed head of super Matt Jenkins will report through to David after joining in July to replace Peter Storey who left the group earlier this year.

The new position was created as part of Trust’s flagged intention to narrow its strategic focus — a plan that saw it offload its equity custody arm to ANZ at the end of July and is driving the firm’s aim to sell its Permanent Business Advisers (PBA) subsidiary by the end of the year.

Trust managing director Jonathan Sweeney says with David on-board, both the super and private clients divisions will be able to concentrate on their respective operations.

“We recognised that we needed to implement a structure that ensured consistency of strategy across the company, while still enabling our operational units to remain focused on delivering quality financial services,” Sweeney says.

Prior to her time at Challenger, David worked for a range of financial services firms including ING, ANZ, and ING-owned RetireInvest and Optimix.