Washington H Soul Pattinson (WHSP) is ramping up a fight for the super dollar by securing a deal with Snowball group.
WHSP’s super fund, which has around 1200 members and $20 million in funds under management (FUM) will initially leverage Snowball’s resources to recruit more WHSP employees into the fund.
It will be followed by a public marketing campaign to promote the fund.
It will offer more to its members, including education, workplace seminars and insurance reviews, as well as financial advice through Snowball planning subsidiary Outlook Financial Services.
The joint venture will be known as Souls Financial Solutions (SFS). It will be two-thirds owned by WHSP and one-third owned by Snowball.
WHSP hopes to boost the fund’s FUM by 80 per cent within three to four years to $100 million.
“It’s just a matter of how aggressive we’ll be to market the fund,” SFS director David Andrews said.
WHSP suffered a seven per cent fall in net profit for the half year ended 31 March to $45.5 million.
The deal gives Snowball, one of the country’s falsest growing dealer groups with $4 billion FUM, access to the employees of one of Australia’s oldest listed companies.
Snowball acquired Western Pacific Financial Group in 2006 and took a 25 per cent equity stake in the Queensland Teachers’ Credit Union in 2005.
Industry funds, credit unions and large corporations who are trying to get the most out of super are talking to Snowball about potential deals, Snowball managing director Tony McDonald said.
“There is a recognition that advice is becoming sophisticated and in particular, there are barriers to entering it,” McDonald said. “It’s becoming a scale game.”
