Matrix Planning Solutions is preparing to expand into new areas of business and will announce the moves by mid-September, the head of the group said.
“The extent to which we are doing so will be interesting,” Matrix managing director Rick Di Cristoforo said.
“What we’re really talking about at the moment is extending our business model,” he said.
Di Cristoforo declined to elaborate, but said the group would announce its new operations between mid-August and mid-September.
The timing of any announcement by Matrix would coincide with the arrival of keenly awaited Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) draft legislation.
Di Cristoforo said the timing was not a coincidence: “We think there are some serious flaws in the current FOFA recommendation, but there are also some clear opportunities.”
Matrix will also add new practices in an effort to grow its funds under advice (FUA).
The group has said it wanted to boost the number of practices in its business from 44 to 60. Di Cristoforo said it would take three years to achieve that target if the growth is purely organic.
“There are lots of strategies that help you grow faster than that but we want to do this properly,” he said.
He said Matrix did not want to grow beyond 60 practices. “If you get too large, you don’t know people well enough anymore.”
Advisers own about 90 per cent of the group, which has just under 100 advisers and about $2.8 billion FUA. Matrix executives own the remainder.
