One door closes another opens
By
Kate Kachor
Mon 23 Nov 2009
The industry has been awash with a number of shock resignations and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the past few weeks.
Earlier this month, Count Financial founder Barry Lambert was forced out of semi-retirement to take back the reigns of the financial services firm following the resignation of chief Marianne Perkovic.
Perkovic quit Count after almost 12 years to take up a position with Colonial First State.
Last week, Genesys Financial Advisers chief executive Greg Kirk announced his resignation, making way for ipac head of business partnering John Saint.
Kirk will step down from the role on 31 December, with Saint set to commence as the new chief executive on 7 December 2009.
From 1 January 2010, Kirk will become a non-executive director of Genesys, the company said.
Larger industry moves were also afoot since the start of November, with AMP dealer group Hillross announcing it would purchase Rabo Financial Advisors.
Rabo Financial Advisors has around 2000 clients and employs 40 staff, including 17 advisers. It had $430 million in funds under advice as at June 2009.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Rabo Financial Advisors business will be incorporated into Hillross's operations and eventually rebranded under the Hillross name.
Hillross's M&A activity comes just a week after its parent company, AMP, informed the market of its intentions to woo Axa Asia-Pacific Holdings.
The courtship between AMP and Axa appeared short lived, with Axa rejecting the advances of its financial services rival less than 24 hours after AMP made its proposal.
Meanwhile, also last week, dealer group Professional Investment Services (PIS) offloaded its Canadian business to a North American-based financial services firm for an undisclosed sum.
PIS managing director Grahame Evans said the firm's exit from the Canadian advice market provided the firm with a greater opportunity to focus on its Asia-Pacific group.
The firm already has a number of new business opportunities in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Could all this movement finally mean the industry is heading towards positive change?
In the past 12 months, the industry has battened down the hatches, though it seems now is the time for change.
While perhaps not a direct catalyst for change, next week marks the release of the Ripoll report, the findings of which will no doubt be the talk of the industry.
Will the government allow for the demise of commissions?
Will the term financial adviser finally be given its correct definition?
Will a villain in the collapse of Storm Financial, Opes Prime and Lift Capital be revealed?
Will the banks require deeper pockets?
While nothing is certain, perhaps the doom and gloom is finally lifting, making way for the possibility of clear skies.
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