Guardian Advice plans to use new recruitment initiatives and an organic growth strategy to accelerate its adviser growth.
The Suncorp-owned financial services firm plans to increase its adviser numbers to more than 200 over the next three years, Guardian Advice executive manager Simon Harris told InvestorDaily.
“We’re seeing a lot of [adviser] movement out there. The positives for us is that we’ve got that nice faimily orientated culture. So we’ve got very much a pull strategy [to attract advisers],” Harris said.
“What we are seeing is a flight to security [during] uncertainty and regulatory change.”
Given recent regulatory changes and the pressures of a tough economic environment, Guardian expects the trend in consolidation of smaller boutique licensees to accelerate, he said.
As a result, in addition to attracting new advisers, the firm also plans to review acquisition opportunities.
“We’re continuing to review opportunities to acquire small and medium sized Australian financial services licensees where they might have synergies or scale benefits for our group. That could really accelerate our recruitment stance,” Harris said.
Guardian’s additional recruitment initiatives include; a strategic partnership with the Association of Financial Advisers to become better connected with the advice industry; membership to a new online directory run by No More Practice; and a new website for prospective advisers.
“We feel we’re in a strong position to grow, given a number of new growth initiatives we’re launching into the new financial year and also because of the tight-knit independent culture of our network,” Harris said.
“We’re confident our strategy will be a successful one and we’re already in talks with a number of existing and new advisers who are showing significant interest in our offer and growth initiatives.”
