Patricia Montague

AMP Financial Services (AFS) Director Banking and Wealth Management Products Rob Caprioli has announced the appointment of Patricia Montague as Director Contemporary Wealth Management Products, effective 12 August.

Ms Montague will be responsible for a number of AMP’s superannuation and retirement products, including its flagship AMP Flexible Super, and will work closely across all areas of the business including sales, distribution, marketing, product, pricing and investments.

Ms Montague joins AMP from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) where she was the General Manager of Retail Customers and Transformation.

In this role Ms Montague was responsible for customer satisfaction, strategy, revenue, and market share across small business, youth, premier and migrant customer segments.

Prior to that, Ms Montague was Head of Retail Bank Transformation at CBA. She was responsible for the change transformation plan related to the core systems replacement program for the retail bank which delivered a seamless frontline change experience for more than 10 million customers and 15, 000 employees.

Mr Caprioli said Ms Montague’s extensive experience in banking and wealth management, and her strong customer focus will be a valuable addition to the AMP group.

“I am very pleased Patricia will be joining AMP’s contemporary wealth management team. She has a strong retail and customer focus and a track record in improving product, sales and distribution capabilities across different customer segments,” Mr Caprioli said.

Ms Montague has a Bachelor’s degree in Pure Mathematics and Economics, a Diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, as well as executive management qualifications through MIT Sloan School of Management.

Ms Montague replaces former Director Contemporary Wealth Management Products Chris Jansen.

Mr Jansen has moved to a compliance project team set up to prepare for the implementation of Stronger Super.

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Stanford Brown Financial Advisers has picked up both the Member Firm of the Year Award for wealth management expertise and the Ballesty Sikemma Award for outstanding professional performance by an individual adviser.
 
Sacha Sanders from Potential Private Wealth was honoured with the Richard Harvey Award which recognises excellence in up-and-coming advisers.
 
Genesys Wealth Advisers Managing Director Paul Robertson said the awards are an opportunity to step back and reflect on what it means to be a financial adviser in today’s community.
 
“Our time is spent guiding clients through their financial lives, providing them with one of the ingredients for their future well-being, so it’s important to recognise advisers who excel at what they do,” Mr Robertson said.
 
The Genesys Annual Awards recognise outstanding achievement in financial planning and are presented to high achievers across a variety of categories.
 
Member Firm of the Year Award
Stanford Brown Financial Advisers
 
This award recognises the quality of the member firm’s strategy, business operations and advice processes.
 
Mr Robertson said Stanford Brown Financial Advisers displays a high standard of professionalism across all areas of their business, from the quality of their advice to the standard of their client service and business strategy.
 
Ballesty Sikkema Award
Mr David Brown, Stanford Brown Financial Advisers
 
Named in honour of the founders of the Genesys business, Paul Ballesty and John Sikkema, this award recognises an adviser who maintains the highest standard of business professionalism.
 
Mr Robertson said David has hit the financial planning trifecta – he’s a strong role model to his peers, makes a significant contribution to the industry and is an active contributor to his local community.
 
Richard Harvey Award
Mr Sacha Sanders, Potential Private Wealth
 
The award recognises an up-and-coming Genesys adviser who has made a significant contribution to their profession and is named in honour of the late Richard Harvey who is remembered for the mentoring he offered his colleagues, particularly those just starting out.
 
Mr Robertson said in his short career, Sacha has already had a big impact on the financial services industry and has an unflinching commitment to professional development.

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Mr Robertson was formerly CEO of Tynan Mackenzie and was instrumental in ensuring a successful merger of the business with ipac in December 2012.

Prior to heading up Tynan Mackenzie, Mr Robertson was National Manager of the AXA Financial Advice Network and before that led AXA Financial Planning.

Commenting on Mr Robertson’s appointment, Mr Waddell said: “Since joining the group in 2003, Paul has enjoyed a distinguished career and earned a reputation as a very capable and results focussed leader.”

In his new role, effective 21 January 2013, Mr Robertson will be focussed on continuing the roll out of Genesys Evolution, a revised value proposition for member firms that captures the benefits of a closer alignment with the AMP Group.

Mr Waddell said AMP’s current Managing Director Genesys Wealth Advisers John Saint has made a significant contribution to the business, leading Genesys through a time of unprecedented industry change and we thank John for the dedication he has shown to the group.

“We’re pleased, that following John’s decision to leave Genesys, we’ve been able to appoint a strong internal candidate to the role which demonstrates the value of sound succession planning,” Mr Waddell said.

Genesys Wealth Advisers is a licensee of AMP’s Financial Advice Network.

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Key features include:

• The introduction of family fee aggregation (FFA), allowing up to four family members to take advantage of lower fees by combining account balances.  FFA is available for spouses, including de facto and same sex, parents, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren.
• An upgrade of the technology infrastructure that supports the platform, providing a significant increase in capacity to support future growth in North transactions.  Early results show a 20% improvement in the average response time across all North Online transactions.
• The ability to generate up-to-the-minute online notifications to keep clients and advisers updated on the dividend and distribution dates of each fund on North’s investment menu.
• A range of additional administrative enhancements to improve account management functionality for both clients and advisers.

New branding has been rolled out across all North’s communications, collateral and online sites – this forms part of AMP’s commitment to remove the AXA brand from the Australian and New Zealand markets by March 2013. 

AMP Director Platforms Steve Burgess said the developments were part of AMP’s ongoing commitment to build on the strength of North as a full-service wrap platform.  

“North has surpassed $3.7 billion in funds under administration and adviser interest has been strong over the last 12 months. 

“These enhancements ensure the platform is quicker and easier to do business with, improving the experience for advisers and clients.” 

North will continue to offer an administration fee rebate for new or rolled over term deposits until the end of the year for those looking to the safety of cash as part of their investment allocation. 

Clients have the flexibility to choose term deposits from four leading Australian banks, including AMP Bank, Adelaide Bank, ANZ and Westpac. 

North is a complete product and platform offer that gives investors access to a range of quality investments including over 230 managed funds, online direct share trading, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and exchange traded commodities (ETCs).

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Ms Blight-Johnston, currently Managing Director of RGA Reinsurance Company, is well-regarded within the wealth protection industry, with a strong track record in driving business growth through strong leadership and successful customer offerings. 

“I am delighted Pauline is joining our AFS leadership team.  Her extensive experience is reflected not only in the successful businesses she has led but in her contribution to industry organisations across the actuarial and insurance industries,” Mr Meller said. 

During her time at RGA, Ms Blight-Johnston led RGA’s business in Australia and New Zealand, and has also had leadership responsibilities in Japan and South Africa. 

Prior to RGA, Ms Blight-Johnston was Chief Financial Officer and Appointed Actuary of Asteron Life after being promoted from General Manager Actuarial Risk and Compliance.  Prior to Asteron she was a Senior Actuarial Consultant at Tillinghast-Towers Perrin and an Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley.  

Ms Blight-Johnston is a Director of the Financial Services Council of Australia and The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance. 

She has a Masters and Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Mr Meller said AMP’s current Director Wealth Protection and Mature products, Ian Campbell, who will leave the company mid next year, has made a significant contribution to the insurance business. 

“Like many people who have worked with him, I have immense respect for Ian.  His depth of knowledge and leadership has been a real asset for AMP, especially in his role in building our combined risk insurance business post AMP’s merger with AXA,” Mr Meller said.

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Ms Roy will be responsible for driving AMP’s corporate super strategy and will work closely across all areas of the business including sales, distribution, marketing, product, pricing and investments.

Ms Roy’s appointment reflects AMP’s increased focus on retaining and attracting corporate superannuation customers during a time of significant industry change.

“Libby brings extensive experience in the financial services industry to this role and we are pleased to have her driving our corporate superannuation business,” AMP Financial Services Managing Director Craig Meller said.

“It is a particularly critical time as the industry prepares for a wide range of changes – including the introduction of MySuper default options for superannuation.  We want to ensure we are well-placed to implement these changes successfully for our business and customers,” Mr Meller added.

AMP’s corporate super team previously reported into Strategic Marketing and Sales.

Ms Roy brings to the role significant experience in financial services, most recently as Acting Multiport Managing Director. Prior to that she was General Manager of ipac Financial Planning with responsibility for ipac’s in-house and equity partner network of approximately 150 advisers with more than $5 billion in funds under advice. Ms Roy has more than 17 years’ experience across a number of industries in Australia and the United States.  She was the General Manager of American Express Travel across Asia Pacific.  She has held a range of positions in financial services including general management, marketing, product development, and operations as well as working for Booz as a strategy consultant. Ms Roy’s appointment is effective 30 July 2012.

13 July 2012

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AFS cashflows and AUM include AXA post the integration of the two businesses. AFS net cash outflows were $335 million for the quarter compared to net cash outflows of $170 million for Q3 10.

Net cashflows were impacted by a net outflow of $192 million from the departure of a Hillross practice in 2010.

Growth in AMP’s contemporary platforms and products partially offset the impact of volatile markets and subdued investor sentiment. Net retail cashflows on AMP platforms were $119 million for the quarter, up 21 per cent on Q3 10 ($98 million).

AFS’s growth initiatives continued to deliver results in Q3 11 with strong growth in the business’ core contemporary platforms and products despite the challenging conditions.

Highlights for Q3 11 were:

• AMP Flexible Super, launched just 18 months ago, is Australia’s fastest growing superannuation and retirement product with $3.5 billion in AUM, a 24 per cent increase over the quarter. Net cashflows for Q3 11 were $788 million, up 45 per cent on Q3 10.
• AXA North has evolved into an industry leading wrap platform with $2.0 billion in AUM – up 7 per cent on 30 June 2011. Net cashflows in Q3 11 doubled to $242 million compared to Q3 10.
• New Zealand KiwiSaver net cashflows increased 10 per cent on Q3 10 to A$168 million. AUM at 30 September 2011 was A$1.4 billion.
• Risk insurance annual premium income for AMP and AXA’s risk businesses was up 4 per cent in the quarter to $1.9 billion due to higher sales and annual premium increases.
• AMP Bank’s mortgage book grew to $11.1 billion, up from $11.0 billion in the previous quarter while its deposit book grew 16 per cent to $6.4 billion over the same period.

External platforms net cash outflows include the impact of the departure of the Hillross practice in 2010 with a remaining $140 million in AUM expected to transition from this practice by the end of 2011.

Corporate superannuation net cash outflows were $40 million, compared with a net cash inflow of $93 million in Q3 10. Cash outflows increased in Q3 11 due to higher customer withdrawals while cash inflows fell after the closure of AMP’s CustomSuper and SuperLeader products in 2010. AFS’s contemporary large corporate superannuation product, SignatureSuper, continued to show resilience in a difficult environment, benefiting from a high proportion of superannuation guarantee contributions.

AFS’s Mature net cash outflows increased by $27 million due to the closure of the AMP Retirement Savings Account with new customers now moving to the low cost AMP Flexible Super product.

AFS’s Australian Contemporary Wealth Management AUM, restated to include AXA, and AMP Capital Investors’ AUM at 30 September 2011, were impacted by lower investment markets. Australian Contemporary Wealth Management AUM at 30 September 2011 was $78.4 billion, down 5 per cent for the quarter.

AMP Capital Investors AUM at 30 September 2011 was $94.4 billion, down 3 per cent for the quarter.

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The AMP University Challenge is an Australian-first financial planning competition, giving students from Australian universities the opportunity to find out first-hand what being a financial planner is all about. Created by AMP and supported by the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and Financial Planning Academic Forum (1), the competition aims to enhance financial planning professional standards by increasing awareness of the profession amongst universities and students.

“Taking part in the AMP University Challenge and meeting industry experts and other students has been a really rewarding experience. I’ve learnt a lot about how the industry works and the options available to me as I pursue a career as a financial planner,” said Ms Walker.

First prize was a $5,000 AMP Bank account, FPA student membership and professional development opportunities. The winner’s university also received a $10,000 grant to put towards financial planning programs.

Zita White from Griffith University (Queensland) and a team of students from La Trobe University (Victoria) won second and third prizes respectively, which were $2,500 and $1,000 AMP Bank accounts along with free FPA membership for a year.

AMP Financial Services Managing Director Craig Meller congratulated Ms Walker on her win. “The student response to the AMP University Challenge has exceeded our expectations. They have really embraced this unique opportunity to find out first-hand what it’s like to be a financial planner,” Mr Meller said.

“We’re excited to announce that we will be continuing the AMP University Challenge next year. Our finalists today have set the benchmark high for next year and beyond.

“By bringing our industry and universities together, we have attracted the calibre of individuals we’d like to see joining the financial planning profession in the future – educated and motivated young professionals looking for a rewarding career that makes a difference in people’s lives,” Mr Meller added.

A total of 42 students in 24 teams across Australia submitted entries into the competition, including students from all the Australian mainland states. Of these students, 78 per cent are in a financerelated degree or double degree. A further 17 per cent are completing a financial planning degree, double degree or major. The University of Melbourne had the most entrants, claiming 40 per cent of submissions, followed by 17 per cent from La Trobe University and 14 per cent from Griffith University.

(1) The Financial Planning Academic Forum is a recently formed group of academics working towards furthering universities’ participation in the financial planning profession.

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The AMP Retirement Adequacy Index used data for the six months to June 2010 from more than 328,000 AMP corporate superannuation customers.

While overall super balances are up, reflecting a stronger economy and higher investment returns, superannuation contributions are still below 2007 levels at 12.5%, compared to 13% in December 2007.

A drop in discretionary contribution rates via salary sacrifice, which are at their lowest levels since the Index began, contributed to this fall. The biggest falls in discretionary contributions were seen in the 45-49 and 50-54 age groups, which dropped 1% (to 1.7%) and 1.8% ( to 3.3%) respectively.

AMP Financial Services Managing Director Craig Meller said the Index’s findings suggest some Australians who have decreased their super contributions risk compromising on their retirement goals.

“People need to carefully plan their finances, in particular their voluntary super contribution strategy, if they want a higher standard of living in retirement than their parents and grandparents.

“In the aftermath of the GFC people are naturally more cautious, but superannuation remains the most effective long-term savings vehicle – it’s tax effective and has a wide range of investment options, from cash and bank deposits, to property and infrastructure investments and equities,” Mr Meller said.

Other key points for the AMP Retirement Adequacy Index are:

• Overall retirement adequacy has increased just 0.1% to 71.4% mainly due to the increase in expected retirement incomes of 2.3% being offset by a corresponding rise in wages which has increased the level of savings needed for a comfortable retirement.
• Today’s workers can now expect to retire on an annual income of $46,746 per year in today’sdollars, a 2.3% increase to the previous six months.
• Average assets at retirement in today’s dollars rose just 0.4% from $650,737 to $653,108 over the six months due to falls in the value of non-super assets.
• While average balances for women have increased, the gap between female and male balances widened across all age groups, due to significant increases in male balances. The average balance for males was $54,061 compared to just $29,692 for women – a 45% difference.
• Overall contribution rates for customers under 50 are at their lowest levels since 2007. Contribution rates for members aged 20-24 years have fallen 1.3%; 1% for members aged 25- 29; 1.3% for members aged 30-34; and 2% for members aged 35-39 between June 2007 and June 2010.
• People are now in the workforce longer than ever before with a 25% increase in employment for people over 65 years old. The retirement age has increased to 64.4 years from 63.5 years in December 2009.

Access Economics Director Chris Richardson said it is likely the retirement age increase reflects the current environment.

“People delaying retirement is a predictable response to the recent Global Financial Crisis, where reduced superannuation account balances may have induced those nearing retirement to delay actual retirement until financial markets and account balances recovered.

“Whether this trend will continue will depend not only on economic factors but how the next generation of retirees view ageing,” Mr Richardson added.

The AMP Retirement Adequacy Index used data for the six months from January to June 2010 from more than 328,000 AMP corporate superannuation customers to predict retirement adequacy based on 65% of an individual’s pre-retirement income.

Economic forecaster, Access Economics, used this data to measure the implications of the current super data for future retirement incomes.

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The awards are open to financial advisers and advisory firms across the Hillross network. The winners are determined by an expert panel of industry representatives, including the Financial Planning Association and PwC.

Hillross Managing Director Hugh Humphrey said, “Each of the award nominees has shown a passion and commitment for high quality advice and client service. These advisers and advisory firms have demonstrated the highest levels of professionalism and each should be very proud of this achievement.”

Hillross financial adviser Diane Chalk of Hillross Fairy Meadow (NSW) was named the 2010 Hillross Adviser of the Year.

Ms Chalk has been an adviser for 25 years and a Hillross Authorised Representative for 12 years. She has established a high profile in the Illawarra region and is well respected by her clients.

“Dianne displays great passion and integrity. She continually provides quality advice for all her clients and actively shares best practice ideas with industry networks,” said Mr Humphrey.

The Hillross Advisory Firm of the Year award was presented to Arrive Wealth Management (South East Queensland).

Arrive Wealth Management has a professional services approach to financial advisory and all their senior advisers are CFP or CA designated. The firm has strong referral relationships from professional firms including PwC, KPMG, Lyons & Judge and Pilot Partners.

Reflecting on Arrive Wealth Management, Mr Humphrey said, “This is a business that is serious about delivering on what it promises, displaying a very impressive ‘future-proof’ business model with a strong culture underpinned by professionalism.”

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