Speaking at an annual update in Sydney this week, netwealth executive director Matthew Heine said the company wanted to be seen as a champion of the independent financial adviser (IFA) network.
Fifty seven per cent of the inflows into netwealth products come through the IFA channel, he said.
“Everything we’re doing is around helping the IFA market so they can grow and prosper post-[Future of Financial Advice],” said Mr Heine.
netwealth is also launching a four-tier adviser support structure in 2013, according to Mr Heine.
“What we’re doing is building out the distribution team and freeing them up so they can see a lot more advisers. We’ll be creating six ‘pods’ nationally, and each pod will have a key distribution manager supported by a training relationship manager,” he said.
There is also a technical services team that is constantly present in the marketplace, along with an adviser support team that was formed last year, said Mr Heine.
According to netwealth managing director Michael Heine, the firm is also spending a lot of money on IT systems and staff to ensure it is FOFA-ready.
The company will also launch a separately managed account (SMA) offering next year, he added.
When it comes to the structure of the business, netwealth’s National Advice Group (NAG) was launched in March. It is comprised of three financial planning businesses: Financial Planning Services Australia (FPSA), Pathway Licensee Services and Bridgeport Financial Services.
NAG is headed by Simon Micallef, who is set to make a number of key appointments with the next three to four weeks.
“We want to move from an open architecture business to an aligned business – we want to make our advisers more efficient and give them more tools,” he said.
Mr Micallef is also the managing director of FPSA – although his title is likely to change in the structural shake-up.
Between the three planning businesses, NAG occupies the salaried channel, the self-employed channel and the IFA market, which helps with succession planning, according to Mr Micallef.
“If an FPSA adviser thinks they’re too big, we simply move them over to Pathway and license them as an IFA,” he said.
FPSA is in the process of adding seven new services to its adviser value proposition, said Mr Micallef.
“In particular, we’re going to focus on practice management and practice improvement … This is around business coaching and increasing sales activity,” he said.
Other enhancements to the value proposition include paraplanning, transition management, marketing, succession planning and the “FPSA way of doing business”, said Mr Micallef.
