Prime Financial Group is pressing on with plans to recruit new joint venture partners for its wealth management business.
“At the moment we’re in active conversations, at any one time, with 45 to 60 different accounting firms,” Prime Financial chief executive Simon Madder told InvestorDaily.
The group plans to add a further 10 to 15 accounting firms to its existing 30 firms over the next 12 months.
The new firms will typically be located in Victoria, New South Wales, North Queensland or Western Australia, Madder said.
“Our target is 10 to15 new firms and that may incorporate some of our existing firms transitioning to this new model as well, but the majority will be new firms,” he said.
“We have a dedicated team who are speaking to those people who want to be part of an independent group. That is a very very active recruitment process that we’re going through.”
Madder explained that Prime has taken the opportunity to focus its business and reposition for growth during poor equity markets.
“We’re actively pursuing that [growth] now,” he said.
In June, the group launched its new managed portfolio service which allows clients to hold a portfolio of investments managed within a separately managed account.
Prime’s previous direct offering required the client to be actively involved in each one of the decisions that has been made.
Under the new offering, the client has transparency about what they hold, but they did not have to be involved in every decision, Madder said at the time.
“It is much more scalable, so it means we can still personalise the advice for clients, but a lot of the reporting is taken away because the administrator does that, [so] we can service a higher number of clients,” he said.
