Westpac Sunrise puts heat on advisers

A WestpacBanking Corporation strategic review going under the name of Project Sunrise may be inadvertently fuelling a large number of adviser departures from the group, according to one Westpac planner.

However, head of corporate affairs for theBT/Westpac dealer group Jason Collins says as no outcomes from Sunrise have been disclosed, any links to it and adviser departures are “simply incorrect”.

“It’s still in the design phase and the outcomes haven’t been decided on, so to say planners are leaving because of the project is an incorrect assertion,” Collins says.

But the adviser, who didn’t want to be named, believes a number of planners have left the group over the past 12 months in anticipation of the project’s recommendations and likely changes to adviser remuneration structures.

According to this year’sMoney Management Top 100 Dealer Groups, Westpac has lost 120 planners over the past year, with adviser numbers falling from 721 to 601.

According to Collins, while Sunrise does have an adviser remuneration component and a number of planners have departed, he says the departures should not be directly linked to the project, as Sunrise is a wide ranging review predominantly focusing on the group’s platforms and improving practice management.

“There have been some departures but we have asked some of these people to leave. Others have left of their own accord — this could be because of markets, or that they’ve decided to do something else or a whole host of other reasons,” he says.

At present, Westpac advisers are paid through a combination of salary and commission remuneration structures.

“[However] to focus on remuneration is getting away from what Project Sunrise is all about. The seeds for Sunrise were sown once BT was purchased by Westpac and the bank wanted to get the BT platforms into the banking channel through practice management. It was a great opportunity as the Westpac platform [PPS] the bank had been using was in need of investment.”

Once the integration of the BT platform was completed, Collins says the focus shifted to BT’s strategy itself and Sunrise was spawned in September.

Collins says there may be an outcome to the review by the end of the year but stresses it is an ongoing project and involves a consultative process between BT, Westpac and Westpac planners.

“It’s not a clandestine operation, as planners comprise some of the project team,” he says.