Australia's largest financial planning group, Professional Investment Services (PIS), has denied media reports saying its exposure to Great Southern and Timbercorp investments threatens its future profitability.
"I'm keen for the correct information to come out and I think there is a fair bit of speculation that is incorrect," PIS managing director Grahame Evans said.
Last week, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reported that the loss of the 10 per cent commission that PIS planners gained from recommending agribusiness managed investment schemes (MIS) would place the future profitability of the planning group in jeopardy.
It also claimed that during 2008-09 PIS received undisclosed payments worth $70,000 from agribusiness schemes known as strategic partnership agreements.
"From our perspective we are no different to anyone else, we didn't get any special arrangements as has been speculated," Evans said.
"People can see our financials on the ASIC website - it's not something that you can hide."
According to the SMH, Great Southern, Timbercorp and other MIS were important to PIS because of "soft-dollar sponsorships".
However, Evans said that at no time did PIS pressure planners to write business for any incentive-related reasons.
"We have been investing in these products for 12 years and have never had a problem before. Everyone wants to have a shot at PIS because of who we are," Evans said.
While Evans declined to comment on PIS's exposure to Great Southern and Timbercorp, he revealed that Great Southern made up 1.5 per cent of funds under management (FUM).
He said investments in Timbercorp were also a relatively small component of PIS's business.
"It is about a quarter of 1 per cent of total flows and 0.4 of a per cent of total FUM," Evans said.
"We have been investing in these funds for over 12 years, so of course you are going to have a lot of funds invested. But if you break down the amount invested over 12 years then it makes sense," he said.
According to the IFA Dealer Group Survey published in October last year, PIS's total funds under advice were about $18 billion.
