Troy said: “After holding the Licence for a number of years, the compliance obligations were taking me away from running a specialist insurance and estate planning practice. I want more time with my clients not less.”

“The new Affinia group, backed by TAL, takes care of the licensee obligations and provides the service and support that both myself and my team need so we can clearly focus on giving high quality advice to our clients.”

A number of existing advisers under Troy’s Queensland-based Business & Estate Planning Specialists Licence are also joining him at Affinia.

Affinia General Manager Craig Parker said: “Affinia’s strategy is to partner with like-minded risk professionals. We remove the noise so our advisers can do what they do best, see more clients.

“We are serious about our network enjoying a seat at the table and having a voice to the continued design and evolution of Affinia. Troy brings very strong expertise as we evolve into a major risk specialist dealer group of choice.”

Troy said: “After researching the market, Affinia provided a very good fit for us and aligned similarly with our goals. I have a lot of time for Craig, the board and management team of Affinia. They have started this group with all the right intentions for risk specialist advisers.

“Running a boutique AFSL with all of the obligations as a licensee was taking me away from my core business. Affinia offers a broader range of support and professional services to enable me to better run my business without the obligations of being a licensee.

“Being backed by an independent risk specialist gives me the necessary confidence and depth of support for my business to grow going forward.”

Troy said the Affinia offer is competitive, and that the group is clearly keen to help risk advisers run their business, and profitably. Having an open APL not aligned to a big institution was a key differentiator that enables advisers to pick the products that best suit a customer’s need. That is truly customer focussed.

“The daily blog I receive from Keith Abrahams tells me to pursue my passion, so that’s what I decided to do. Running the business and providing advice to small business owners around their risk management and estate planning needs is what I am passionate about, and joining the Affinia group enables me to do that,” Troy said.

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Jonathon Nguyen has joined the team as Affinia’s Regional Manager, Vic, Tas, SA, WA. Jonathon was previously state manager, WA, for Millennium3. He started with Affinia on 14 January. 

Peter Nielsen started with Affinia as Regional Manager, NSW and ACT, on 30 January. He was previously Regional Manager, NSW and Qld, for Professional Investment Services.  

Completing the line-up, Paul Gaffney joins Affinia on 4 February as Regional Manager, Qld and NT. Paul was previously State Manager Dealer Groups, Qld, for BT. 

All three have been hired to drive the ongoing development of Affinia’s practices nationwide, and to recruit new advisers to the Affinia group. 

They will report to Craig Parker, Head of Affinia. 

“I’m really excited to have been able to recruit three such respected faces in our industry to the Affinia team,” said Parker. 

“Jonathon, Peter and Paul are all hugely experienced and have a great mix of skill sets across practice development and recruitment. But most importantly, they’re passionate about the benefit risk insurance brings to the community, which is what Affinia is all about.” 

Parker added that Affinia now has dedicated representation across all states and territories. 

“Affinia has big plans for 2013 and beyond. We want to be the number one choice for advisers specialising in risk insurance, and are already seeing a lot of interest from the market. 

”Having our regional managers in place will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2013.”

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TAL’s vision for Affinia is to be the leading dealer network in the market for advice risk specialists.  Affinia will be backed by the infrastructure, expertise and financial strength of TAL.

Craig Parker, Head of Affinia, said that the group is looking to partner with advisers who are specialists in risk, and who want an alternative to a traditional dealer group.

“From talking to risk specialists around the country, we know there are many advisers out there who feel left out in the cold by the traditional dealer groups. They’re fed up of being the poor relation of their wealth management cousins, and bored by the same-sameness of most dealer groups.

“We want to shake things up. We’ve designed Affinia from scratch based on adviser feedback about what’s important to them so we can stand out in a market which offers little differentiation or specific tools and support for the true risk specialist.  Affinia will be the natural home for advisers who are as passionate about life insurance as TAL is.”

Affinia will offer a number of features which Mr Parker believes will be attractive to the risk-specialist adviser, including a flat fee structure and commissions paid weekly. Affinia will also offer underwriting pre-assessment services, business planning and legal services, and marketing support for advisers.

“As Affinia is backed by TAL, the largest life insurance specialist, we believe we can be more flexible and responsive to advisers’ wants and needs than a traditional dealer group,” he said. “Our goal is to create a community where advisers can have a say in how products and services are developed.

“Affinia’s unashamed ambition is to the number one choice for advisers specialising in life insurance.”

Brett Clark, TAL’s chief executive officer, Retail Life, explained the rationale behind TAL launching a risk-specialist dealer group.

“Affinia will play a key part in TAL fulfilling its ambition of making life insurance accessible to even more Australians.  We want to see more Australians getting access to high quality life insurance advice and product solutions.

“The Affinia brand will complement the existing TAL business and we are very excited about the opportunity for growth in the market.  We have worked hard at TAL to build a leading life insurance business, and we intend to work just as hard in building a leading risk focused advice business.

“Affinia has the full support and backing of TAL.  We will leverage the strengths of the entire organisation and our expertise in life insurance to ensure that Affinia is a success for advisers and the customers it serves,” said Mr Clark.

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