Former Pivotal Financial Advisers chief executive Mark Schroeder has stepped out on his own to form a new dealer group.
Schroeder left Pivotal’s parent company Tower Australia late last year to form new group Wright Global Investments (WGI).
WGI began operating in January this year and already has more than 40 advisers on its books with another 40 advisers in the pipeline, Schroeder said.
Of the 40 signed advisers, no more than six were brought across from Pivotal, he said.
“Advisers don’t feel as though they are being looked after well enough, and if anyone really needed to understand why the support was needed in the last 18 months, I think a lot of advisers felt they were hung out to dry by their dealers,” he said.
As well as boosting its adviser numbers, WGI is also conscious of providing its network with flexibility of choice.
As part of the notion of choice, WGI will not tie itself to a single product manufacturer nor will it call on its advisers to use only one remuneration structure.
“My orientation has already been on focusing on clients. And my orientation is that financial planning should be about uniquely tailoring product services and investment opportunities to client needs and … adjusting a portfolio for the client as the client goes through different parts of their lifestyle,” Schroeder said.
“We don’t want to be attached to a product manufacturer. All we want to do is have a process where we continually monitor the best-performing products in certain asset classes and let the adviser choose.”
The firm had entered into an arrangement with Tower to provide a referral opportunity. However, it was mutually agreed WGI would pursue the opportunity alone.
Schroeder said the firm would also not settle on a single charging model for its advisers, leaving the choice up to the client.
“It’s whatever the client wants to pay – if they want to do fee-for-service, great. If they want to do commissions, they can,” he said.
In a bid to provide solid grounding for the firm’s advisers without being tied to a larger institution or linked to a product provider, WGI is also in the process of adding its own asset consulting arm.
The firm has already engaged the help of former Lonsec and Morningstar staffer Rob McGregor.
