BT Financial Group (BTFG) has hit back at claims its recruitment of seven Count Financial (Count) practices broke an unspoken industry agreement between advice and administration businesses.
"We have explained to Count that BT has fully complied with all of its obligations to Count and to Count members and of course we will continue to do so," BTFG general manager advice Mark Spiers told InvestorDaily.
When asked directly if he believed BTFG had broken any agreement, Spiers said: "We've fully complied with all our obligations."
Spiers' comments come in response to claims made by Count chairman Barry Lambert.
Lambert told The Australian Financial Review yesterday that he was disappointed by BTFG's recruitment of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) aligned practices, stating "it's not the thing to do".
In March, business ties between Count and BTFG became strained following BTFG's poaching of Count firms, with the CBA-owned dealer group calling for the withdrawal of BTFG as a key sponsor of its annual conference.
However, industry consultant Wayne Wilson told InvestorDaily that adviser consolidation within Australia's multi-billion dollar advice industry is not isolated to just two groups.
"All the major groups are doing it," Wilson, a former Westpac executive, said.
"MLC are running around trying to get as many people as they can to join up, AMP are doing the same thing.
"[AMP] are probably the strongest out there in terms of the one on one acquisition of financial planning practices. So everyone is doing it, even the mid-tier groups like SFG."
Wilson expects to see further consolidation in the next 12 months, particularly in light of the recent "hiccup" in Europe.
"At the moment there is nearly as much money exiting the system as entering it," he said.
He said the beneficiary of the environment has been the banks, though money remains in the system.
"It's not coming into the system the way it used to, mum and dad investors are very hesitant at the moment to give advisers money to invest into managed funds on platforms or even direct equities. They are sitting in term deposits and a lot of it is sitting off platform," he said.
"A number of the big banks have got technical issues with their platforms in that they only put their own bank's term deposits on them so with any three out of four days they are not likely to be the most competitive term deposit in town and that makes it really hard for advisers to encourage clients to go into them because with rates being so low, 10 or 15 basis points is important to people at the moment."
Spiers said despite a focus on groups engaging in adviser acquisition, the reason why advisers agree to move licensees has become a lost in the debate.
In his view, Spiers believes the reason advisers jump ship is because they believe where they are moving to will give them an "advantage" in being able to provide "higher quality support and service and advice to their clients in order for them to continue to growth and develop their business".
Coredata head of advice, wealth and super Kristen Turnbull said licensee support is the overriding driver of adviser satisfaction with their licensee, contributing around 62 per cent to overall satisfaction.
Licensee support was deemed more important than remuneration, product independence and range, and brand, Turnbull said.
"Within the support area, in 2012 it is compliance that's contributing the most to adviser satisfaction, followed by marketing support and communication, technical services and practice development managers," she said.
"In addition to focusing their attention on the areas of the offer that are most likely to drive satisfaction and loyalty, licensees should be ensuring advisers feel valued and that the licensee is focused on their needs - particularly in this highly competitive environment."
Meanwhile, preliminary findings from Investment Trends upcoming April 2012 Planner Business Model Report indicates that the proportion of planners intending to leave their dealer group in the next 12 months has fallen from 2011 levels.
In the 2011 study 12 per cent said that they intend to leave their dealer group in the next 12 months.
Lack of support (17 per cent), fees (14 per cent) and to gain greater independence (14 per cent) were the most commonly cited reasons for intending to leave a dealer group in 2011.
