Australian Unity Personal Financial Services (AUPFS) has promoted Craig Meldrum to the role of head of financial advice, AUPFS general manager Steve Davis has confirmed.
Meldrum, the group's former technical services general manager was elevated to the newly created position to improve the dealer group's support across its advisory and accounting practices.
In the role, he will be responsible for the financial advice proposition within AUPFS, including technical services and strategy, which he was already taking care of, risk insurance, investment, research and product.
"In my role I will ensure a coordinated approach to these key areas of the advice process that are essential to delivering well thought out, high quality, seamless advice and services to clients," he said.
"I will also be the primary manager of the relationships and activities with our preferred partners in research, investment and product, with our newly appointed national manager of risk insurance, Mark Oliver, to also form a part of that integrated offering."
AUPFS said as it continues to expand the scale of its business, it will look to add further resources to help enhance investment and portfolio management capabilities as well as provide additional resources in technical services.
Meldrum said he will be the primary contact for advisers and accountants who have questions regarding AUPFS' investment philosophy, specific investments and non-approved products, and will continue to provide quality technical support as he always has.
"We have worked hard to build a real technical differentiation in our advice capabilities in areas such as aged care, asset protection, and tax management," Meldrum said.
"It is in much needed areas of personal and business estate planning and business succession planning however that I will be working closely with Mark to ensure that our strategies are well coordinated, effective and able to be more easily implemented into the advice process to help our advisers and accountants grow their practices."
