Craig Ralph
AZ NGA has signed a binding sale and purchase agreement to acquire 51% Financial Lifestyle Partners (“FLP”) via its Australian subsidiary, AZ Next Generation Advisory Pty Ltd (“AZ NGA”).
The agreement also includes a share swap of 49% of FLP’s equity for AZ NGA shares and a progressive buy back of these shares over the next ten years. This latest agreement follows the recently announced deals reached with Eureka Whittaker Macnaught (“EWM”), Pride Advice (“Pride”), and Lifestyle Financial Planning Services (“LFPS”) and is a continuation of AZ NGA’s objective of bringing together high quality financial planning practices providing wealth management services to retail, HNW and institutional clients in Australia.
AZ NGA was established in November 2014 and is part of Azimut Group, Italy’s leading independent financial planning and asset management company, established in 1989 and today operating in 14 countries with more than A$54 billion.
FLP’s CEO, Craig Ralph, began his financial planning career 30 years ago and opened a pure fee-for-service practice in 1997. This practice evolved and became known as FLP in 2010. Craig, along with his wife Lisa were leaders in the transition to fee-for-service business model in Australia. Today FLP manages over A$100 million of assets under advice, and provides services to over 300 clients. FLP employs 7 staff in its Melbourne-based office offering a comprehensive range of financial planning services including investment and asset allocation advice, retirement planning, insurance, and strategic financial planning advice to its client base. As a result of this latest acquisition AZ NGA has now extended its geographical reach to include offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, and regional Victoria.
Whilst FLP has received many industry awards over the years it is the unique “Client-4-life” service model that the team are most proud of. FLP focuses their clients more on the lifestyle they wish to live than just financial objectives alone. According to Craig Ralph: “We believe we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients. However it is our approach to life planning that sets us apart”.
FLP will continue to be led by Craig and Lisa Ralph and the leadership team have all entered into long term arrangements to ensure continuity of service.
Paul Barrett, AZ NGA CEO states: “FLP is a welcome addition to the AZ NGA network. Craig, Lisa and the team have built a highly successful firm based on their many years of experience creating and managing financial planning enterprises and delivering first class service to their clients”.
Craig Ralph said “We are delighted to join the AZ NGA family and look forward to sharing the journey with other like-minded business owners and their teams. We believe this opportunity secures our futures as well as those of our staff and our clients”.
AZ NGA announced its first acquisition on May 8th, 2015, when it acquired EWM. This was followed by the acquisition of the Pride Group on May 27th 2015. The third deal was announced on July 15th 2015 when AZ NGA acquired LFPS. This latest deal is in line with its long term business plan to continue to acquire high calibre businesses. AZ NGA has shortlisted a number of financial planning firms for potential consolidation and expects to announce its next deal in October.
* Based on a AUD/EUR exchange rate of 1/0.6353