Head of Leveraged, Chris Bristow said: “To be recognised by financial planners specialising in margin lending as the professional’s choice is testament to the continuing efforts of the Leveraged team to provide the highest levels of service in delivering a superior customer experience.

“We value the findings and feedback that we receive from Investment Trends, particularly as margin lending has evolved into such a specialist field of financial planning expertise.  Margin lending is overwhelmingly seen as an effective wealth creation strategy by those specialising in the provision of advice in this field.

“A conservative gearing plan can be used by younger clients with minimal funds available to start investing with thousands, rather than the hundreds of thousands of dollars now required to enter the investment property market.”

“It would appear, that constant tinkering with superannuation rules, is also leading some older investors to explore alternative tax effective wealth creation strategies.”

“The report also found, that planners  expect that interest rates will stay low over the coming year, providing additional advice opportunities to clients thinking about diversifying their existing portfolios before June 30.

“Planners advising on gearing products indicated that they expect to almost double their geared allocations to ETFs and managed accounts within the next three years, which allows geared investors to readily diversify their investments or target specific countries positioned for solid future growth”

“Having claimed and retained top spot among margin lenders for overall quality of service and support, we are continually improving the online experience by growing the range of information available to both investors and advisers as well as streamlining the online application process on the Leveraged website.”

“Leveraged planner clients cite a high level of support, an innovative product range, great communication and good relationships with our BDMs, as playing a significant role in driving their selection of Leveraged.

“We will continue to listen to our advisers and work with them on supporting their individual needs and we look forward to building and strengthening these relationships into the future”, Mr Bristow concluded.

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The move comes as part of a broader Leveraged initiative to provide Business Development Managers across the country with more decision making authority at a regional level to better understand and meet partner and adviser needs.

Hilsdon said “Our unique market based team distribution model now provides us with engagement depth and the flexibility to be more responsive in meeting the needs of our partners and advisers.

“The new business model lays the foundation to assist more Australians in reaching their financial goals through Leveraged’s enhanced product offerings and the award winning support we have always provided to the advice industry. That doesn’t change”.

One of Leveraged’s key industry commitments is the ongoing education of advisers and their clients around relevant gearing strategies and solutions.

“Our key focus is to educate advisers and their clients around appropriate gearing strategies that are applicable to their situation and their financial goals – whether it’s saving and investing for that initial house deposit, funding children’s education, building a retirement portfolio outside of superannuation or investment hedging to pay that mortgage off – it’s all relevant in making that investment dollar work harder” Hilsdon said.

“We are further committed to continuing to provide regular multi-media productions, webinars, contemporary articles, trading notes and presentations across the industry and continuing to share the technical and research excellence and experience of our in-house business leaders”, concluded Mr Hilsdon.

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Keith Hilsdon

The release of the latest Investment Trends Margin Lending Report surveying financial planners has been welcomed by David Arnold, Head of Leveraged.

Leveraged took the lead in both planner satisfaction (up 30% from 2014) and advocacy (up 26%), after making significant gains in both measures over the last 12 months. The proportion of financial planners selecting Leveraged as their main lender for good BDM relationship also doubled from 30% to 60%. The findings are testament to the fact that last year’s rebrand and website enhancements goes much deeper than colour and movement and signals Leveraged’s commitment to retaining the mantle of the professional’s choice in this niche industry sector.

Commenting on the findings, David Arnold said: “These findings follow through from our announcement three years ago that we were serious about boosting investment into the Leveraged business with a particular focus on service excellence and value for money. We have listened to our customers so we could better understand their needs, been consistently first in passing on interest rate cuts and made significant changes at the very core of our operation.

“Leveraged now has the highest advocacy among planners serviced who currently advise on margin lending and this result is a credit to the entire Leveraged team.

“Investment Trends found that Leveraged’s successful performance against these industry-wide measures are attributed to improvements made to both our BDM relationships and communications. These enhancements have clearly translated into service provider selection drivers.

“Our team of BDMs and relationship managers are now empowered to reduce service friction wherever possible. Customer surveys are inclined to find the scales tipping toward people who want lower interest rates and the lowest fees, but on the other side of the ledger, experienced investors want high touch, frequent contact and excellent communication.

“The combination of low interest rates, relatively cheap share prices and steady dividends have combined to prompt people to explore and revisit gearing as a strategy to build and diversify a share portfolio.

“We may be seeing an increase in younger borrowers with smaller facilities, but as a strategy, gearing remains a relevant pathway to build wealth, particularly when regulatory signals and property prices in the eastern capitals are making investors baulk at the initial outlay involved in entering that market,” concluded Mr Arnold.

Keith Hilsdon, Head of Distribution, Financial Planning at Leveraged said:“Our focus is always on the financial adviser and providing value. Leveraged continually strives within the business to get this balance right. As our call and service centres are domiciled in Australia, this aspect of our operation is not cheap, however it is a decision that has helped bring about a great result in terms of administrative accuracy and customer satisfaction.

“Significantly more planners are now saying their most recent discussion about margin lending was instigated by the client, indicating unmet information needs in the planner community. We are already expanding upon our existing range of resources and educational materials with other service providers such as Kaplan and the ASX to address those needs.

“We have seen growth in our ‘direct’ customer base too with borrowings from direct investors rising 3.65% from $299M to $310M and Leveraged’s ‘direct’ customer market share rising 0.55% to 5.97%*. It’s a pleasing result and a credit to our crew,” Mr Hilsdon concluded.

*According to RBA 2015 December Quarter data.

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The company will now be known as Leveraged, with Leveraged Equities now comprising part of the product range in a potential multi-product strategy for the firm.

Alexandra Tullio, Executive, Leveraged said: “Our re-brand is so much more than simply formalising what people have been calling us informally for years.  It’s about evolution and celebrating the successful implementation of changes to the operation of our business we’ve made since announcing a boost in investment to Leveraged around 18 months ago.

“Leveraged has a strong, proud history in combination with an enviable market reputation.  Our new face reflects both the trust earned from our customers over many years and the quality of our service. It reflects our growing product range and customer-first mentality. Above all, it’s an instantly recognisable new logo that ‘tips its hat’ to the heritage and strength of our brand.

“We’re excited about Leveraged and looking forward to a robust future. We’ve spent a great deal of time and energy refreshing the business and giving our people an element of freedom to best determine how our teams will operate.  It’s been a highly consultative period and the time is now right in the evolution of Leveraged to unveil our new identity.

“Leveraged is committed to innovation, developing new offerings and meeting gaps in the market in league with our partners. We’re responding to a changing marketplace and continually improving the customer experience so that we are truly the professional’s choice when it comes to geared solutions”, concluded Ms Tullio.

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