The former chief executive of DKN Financial Group has no intention or strategy to lure staff or financial advisers to join him at BT Financial Group (BTFG).
Phil Butterworth told InvestorDaily he was not responsible for the exits of high-profile DKN executives Mario Modica, Kon Costas and Andrew Rutter.
Butterworth said the Westpac-owned financial services group approached the executives independently of his own discussions.
“BT initiated that totally independently. I made a decision to grasp this opportunity as it was presented to me,” he said.
“I’m quite looking forward in March to leveraging the scale of the group.”
While he would not reveal too much detail about what his new role with BTFG would entail, he said the mandate was about delivering a range of solutions to financial planning practices.
“So whether it be independent or institution [practices], you’ve got to have the scale and the leverage to be able to [deliver solutions],” he said.
“I think the board of BT Group will provide us great opportunity and scale to be able to leverage the opportunities for practices for the next decade of where our industry is going.”
He said there was no strategy to recruit further staff from DKN.
“It certainly hasn’t been my intention to date. No, at this point I’m on holidays and my focus right now is having the opportunity to take a bit of time out and spend time with the family,” he said.
“There’s no strategy around that as far as I’m concerned.”
Yesterday, BTFG announced Butterworth would join the company in March as the managing director of a new business unit.
The appointment of Butterworth, Modica, Costas and Rutter was part of a strategy by BTFG to counteract regulatory change in the industry and involved the group’s existing Magnitude business, the company said.
BTFG general manager of advice Mark Spiers said the company’s new advice business would adopt a number of themes.
“It’s all about a shift in focusing on practices as they move from practices that are centred on their revenue model and their revenue multiples to their profit,” Spiers said.
“The other big theme going through is to date dealer groups who have really been centred around quite reasonably the dealer group itself, the business model of the dealer group, and we see a big opportunity of rethinking that and having the model centred around the adviser and the practice in terms of the services and support.
“It’s all about growth and realising scale and Magnitude provides a fantastic springboard for us to launch ourselves into the new market.”
Spiers would not be drawn on whether BTFG’s new advice unit would mean material changes to the Magnitude brand.
Commenting on the new hires, he said: “We’ve recruited an experienced team with a lot of know-how and they’ll be able to make a significant contribution to both the offer we’re developing now, but also to the overall business, and work alongside the highly capable team in Securitor,” he said.
“So the strength in our offer and the strength of our leadership teams in both businesses we believe is market leading.”
IOOF has already named a number of replacements for the outgoing DKN executives.
Mark Stephen will assume the role of acting DKN chief executive, reporting to IOOF managing director Christopher Kelaher.
Steve Black and Craig Joscelyne have been appointed regional managers, reporting to IOOF distribution general manager Renato Mota, while Rachael Dunne will continue to head DKN’s equity partners.
