Westpac Financial Planning has signed on a group of 10 planner partnerships as part of its new adviser pathway program.
Westpac’s Partnership program was launched yesterday after a six month trial period.
BT Financial Group head of partnerships advice Sarah Forman said the program is a career opportunity that was created for planners who operate within Westpac Financial Planning.
“Effectively it’s a middle ground where we let planners set up a little business operating in a bigger business,” Forman said.
“Every financial planning business in Australia is looking to retain their most experienced and most successful financial planners,” she said.
“So we felt that by offering them this opportunity where they have a greater control over the way they do business day to day and supported and the value they personally derive out of that, we wanted to give them greater control over that.”
She said from April this year Westpac tested the model in a virtual state with 12 partnerships in regional and metropolitan areas.
The model was evolved from an existing design, as well as modelled on the way partnerships operate in legal and accounting firms.
“We established 12 partnerships which were across the range of customer segments within Westpac customer base,” Forman said.
“For the last six months they have been running the model in a virtual state. There were some really encouraging results from that pilot that have given us the confidence to back it and to effectively launch it.”
Forman said Westpac plans to roll out another series of groups in the next six months, with 10 to 15 groups currently in an establishment mode.
