Angus Benbow

Leading provider of advice and business services to financial advice firms, Centrepoint Alliance Limited (ASX: CAF), has announced that its strong growth trajectory continued during 1H FY21.

Gross revenue for the half was $70.6m – an increase of 15% on 1H FY20.  Net revenue from authorised representative fees increased by $2.3m.

The Company reported a net profit after tax for the half of $1.6m, compared to a loss of $1.5m for the same period last year.

EBITDA increased by $1.8m from the same period last year to $2.1m (excluding legacy claims) due to advice fee growth, slower runoff of rebates, and continued focus on operational efficiencies.

Centrepoint Alliance continues to grow its position as a scalable service provider to licensed and self-licensed financial advisers and attract quality advisers, with 27 new advisers joining during 1H FY21.

The Company previously announced a resumption of dividend payments and will pay a fully franked special dividend of 3c per share and an interim ordinary dividend of 1c per share.

Mr Angus Benbow, Centrepoint Alliance CEO, said: “We are proud to deliver continued improvements in revenue and profitability in the first half of this financial year.

“The three-year strategic transformation that we commenced during 1H FY19 is progressing according to plan and has allowed us to improve the Company’s operating performance and positioned us to seek new strategic opportunities.”

Mr Alan Fisher, Centrepoint Alliance Chair, said: “Centrepoint Alliance continues to improve its operating performance, and competitive position as the Company navigates structural change in the wealth management industry. While the size of the advice industry as measured by authorised representatives is shrinking, large licensees such as Centrepoint Alliance are gaining share and leveraging the advantages of scale and technology leadership.”

Looking forward, Mr Benbow said Centrepoint Alliance was well-positioned to benefit from ongoing industry fragmentation.

“We enter 2021 placed strongly to drive continued growth and value for our investors and our community with a scalable business model, revenue certainty, an attractive service platform for advisers, and a simple and clean balance sheet.”

Mr Benbow highlighted Centrepoint Alliance’s advice technology strategy as a key driver of further business growth following the Company’s significant investments in Enzumo, data capabilities and partnerships over the past three years.

He noted Centrepoint Alliance’s recent agreement with UK-based Intelliflo will make it one of Australia’s first large-scale licensees to access Intelliflo’s open data architecture benefits.  Intelliflo has been working with Centrepoint Alliance-owned Enzumo, its Australian implementation partner, and several pilot Centrepoint Alliance practices over the last 18 months.

“We retain a clear focus on our objectives to enhance value in 2H FY21, as we drive aggressive organic growth in the licensed and self-licensed market, leverage our scale advantage with adviser technology investments and extensions, and actively pursue consolidation opportunities,” Mr Benbow said.

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Angus Benbow

Centrepoint Alliance, a leading provider of advice and business services to financial advice firms throughout Australia, has announced its first-mover agreement with Intelliflo, the UK’s market leader for financial advice technology.

Centrepoint Alliance’s adviser network will be one of the first in Australia to access Intelliflo technology, which is used by more than a third of the UK advice market.

Financial planning technology solutions provider, Enzumo, which was acquired by Centrepoint Alliance in June 2020, will work with Intelliflo to implement its offering across the Australian market.

Mr Angus Benbow, CEO of Centrepoint Alliance, said the agreement was the latest step in Centrepoint Alliance’s ongoing commitment to providing cutting edge technological solutions to both authorised representatives and self-licensed businesses.

“We have been receiving a high volume of enquiries from advisers seeking a new home, and technology is high on their list of priorities,” Mr Benbow said.

“In addition to teaming up with Intelliflo, Centrepoint Alliance has been making significant investments in technology including the acquisition of Enzumo, the introduction of an online adviser portal, Centrepoint Connect, and the development of the Centrepoint Practice Dashboard tool.”

A new era of advice tech

Mr Benbow said Centrepoint Alliance and Enzumo are working closely with Intelliflo to create the offering for the group.

“We believe Intelliflo’s technology will greatly benefit financial advisers, and we are delighted to be working with them so that the Centrepoint Alliance community will be one of the first to access the benefits of Intelliflo’s open architecture,” Mr Benbow said.

Mr Nick Eatock, CEO and Chairman of Intelliflo, said the partnership with Centrepoint Alliance and Enzumo had been invaluable in helping Intelliflo formulate its Australian market offering.

“Our engagement with Centrepoint Alliance has been building for some time,” said Mr Eatock. “We greatly value the opportunity to work together and believe this marks the beginning of a new era of advice tech for Australia.”

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Angus Benbow

Leading provider of advice and business services to financial advice firms, Centrepoint Alliance Limited (ASX: CAF), has announced strong growth during FY20 including an increase of 11% in gross revenue and a 61% increase in adviser fee revenue.

Announcing its full year results Centrepoint Alliance said while the operating environment had been unprecedented, conditions have provided significant business opportunities as the need for advice and the transformation of advice delivery gathered pace in the second half of the financial year.

Key FY20 highlights include:

• Gross revenue up by 11% to $131.0m, driven by strong growth in new advisers and significant increase in average gross revenue per advice firm.
• Adviser fees increased by 61% to $10m, with the average annual adviser fee growing by 84% to $36k, continuing the transition to a sustainable recurring fee model.
• Strong 2H20 result, with gross profit up $1.1m and management expenses down $2.0m on 1H20.
• Adviser recruitment running at record levels, onboarding 79 new advisers (up 16% from previous record growth in FY19).
• Licensed adviser base increased by 6% to 317 in a market that has contracted 13% in the past 12 months.
• Low churn, retaining 83% of advice firms under new FY20 pricing structure from 1 July 2019.
• Acquisition of leading advice technology firm, Enzumo, completed in June 2020 for $1.5m.

Mr Angus Benbow, Centrepoint Alliance CEO said the results affirmed the Strategic Refresh that Centrepoint Alliance had embarked upon in early FY19 to reposition for growth.  The strategy focuses on advice and business services, leveraged through new data and digital tools, and a new transparent pricing model.

“FY20 has been a busy and successful year for Centrepoint Alliance. The conditions of our operating environment have presented challenges which are significant, but I am pleased to report that these same conditions have provided opportunities for us to demonstrate value to our adviser community,” said Mr Benbow.

“We are particularly proud to have delivered recurring growth which has accelerated in H2 FY20, providing tailwind momentum heading into 2021.

“Through our strategic transformation we have developed an increasingly attractive suite of services, which has empowered us to attract new advisers to the Centrepoint Alliance community at a record rate, despite the financial advice market shrinking overall.

“A key priority has been to improve the quality and breadth of our technology offering and we took an important step forward in this regard with our acquisition in June 2020 of the Enzumo financial planning technology solutions business.”

Mr Alan Fisher, Centrepoint Alliance Chairman, said as the wealth management industry has undergone structural change, the strategic path that Centrepoint Alliance has chosen has placed the Company well to capitalise on disruption in the sector.

“The need for quality financial advice has never been more pressing, and we were pleased to recruit record numbers of new, quality financial advisers in FY20. Centrepoint Alliance is an increasingly attractive adviser destination with a growing reputation for integrity and leadership,” he said.

Looking ahead to FY21, Mr Benbow said Centrepoint Alliance was well positioned to take up opportunities, particularly as smaller licensees seek to adapt their business models following a once-in-a-generation industry transformation.

“Our areas of focus for the year ahead are to continue to attract high quality licensed and self-licensed firms to the Centrepoint Alliance community, enhance the value of our scalable service platform, and actively explore industry consolidation opportunities,” said Mr Benbow.

“We enter FY21 well-positioned to achieve these goals with a robust, cash-generative and scalable platform, backed by the balance sheet strength to grow quickly and opportunistically. In addition, our adviser community has confirmed to us they are extremely satisfied with Centrepoint Alliance and our ability to fully support them in the areas they value most.”

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Angus Benbow

Centrepoint Alliance (ASX: CAF), a leading provider of advice and business services to financial advice firms throughout Australia, will acquire financial planning technology solutions business Enzumo from Chant West Holdings (ASX: CWL) for $1.5 million.

Enzumo is the leading provider of financial planning software consulting, customisation and workflow solutions, and e-learning management solutions to the financial planning and advisory industry.

Enzumo’s clients include some of Australia’s largest banks, mid-tier wealth institutions, medium-sized financial advisory and dealer groups as well as individual financial advisory practices.

Greater technology support for advisers

Angus Benbow, CEO of Centrepoint Alliance, said the acquisition was the latest step in the company’s strategic refresh and will enhance Centrepoint Alliance’s technology offering to the advice sector.

“Technology has been driving greater efficiencies for advisers over recent years,” said Mr Benbow.

“COVID-19 has completely reframed the role of technology in advice delivery and will accelerate a far broader utilisation of technology across the sector.

“Advisers’ eyes have been opened to new ways technology can assist them, and they will be taking a multi-faceted approach to technology adoption in the future.

“As part of our strategic refresh, we anticipated increased demand for technology support services from both our authorised representatives and self-licensed businesses. We are already making significant investments including the introduction of online adviser portal Centrepoint Connect and the development of AI-enabled practice management tool Centrepoint Adviser Intelligence.

“The acquisition of Enzumo will enable us to develop our technology and data services further to assist all those in the Centrepoint Alliance network to be both more effective and profitable, as well as ensuring continued support for Enzumo clients.”

Complementary businesses

Both Centrepoint Alliance and Enzumo will continue to service and support advisers and there will be no immediate change to either business model.

“Centrepoint Alliance supports both self-licensed advisers and licensees – we already provide services to some of Enzumo’s largest clients, so Enzumo’s technology solutions are a natural complement to our advice and business services,” said Mr Benbow.

“Enzumo has been very successful in consulting to both self-licensed advisers and licensees. It is the strength of these relationships that attracted us to the business and where we see opportunity for continued expansion. Enzumo has a very high-quality team, and I am delighted to welcome them.”

Brendan Burwood, CEO of Chant West Holdings Limited said “Both Centrepoint Alliance and Enzumo share a culture that is focused on providing the services and support that licensed and self-licensed financial advice firms need to provide great advice to their clients. These complementary services will give the Enzumo business increased talent and scale to compete in the financial advice technology market.”

Recurring fee-based revenue models

The acquisition of Enzumo will further strengthen Centrepoint Alliance’s move to a scaleable, recurring fee-based revenue model, which commenced in August 2018 as part of the business’s strategic refresh.

Both businesses operate subscription-based fee models.

“Since embarking on the transformation of our business, we have achieved great success,” said Mr Benbow. “In 18 months, we have shifted all our licensed advisers to our new subscription-based fee model. Recurring adviser fees are now our largest income source and increased by 37% during the first half of FY20. The average tenure of our licensed advisers is nine years ­– even after accounting for the strong growth in the number of advisers joining us during the last two years.

“The first half of this financial year was also a record period for adviser recruitment in which we welcomed 55 new advisers to our licence and grew net adviser numbers by 10%, despite the significant contraction in the overall number of advisers.”

Mr Benbow said the Enzumo acquisition is a significant milestone for Centrepoint Alliance. “We commenced our strategic refresh in the firm belief that Australians need a strong and sustainable financial advice sector. The last few months have provided a clear illustration of the value of advice and the importance of thinking about technology differently, and has further emboldened Centrepoint Alliance as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities.”

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Mr Glass brings significant operational experience to Centrepoint in wealth and asset management businesses.  He has comprehensive ASX-listed, company secretarial and investor relations experience and will begin his new role in early June.

Most recently, Mr Glass held CFO and interim advisory roles in diverse fast-paced growth and transformation environments. These include Pallion, Australia’s largest precious metals services business, Aquis Farm, an integrated horse breeding and racing business, and Strategic Collision Repair Group, a conglomeration of integrated auto body repair businesses.

He also served as National Head of Strategy and NSW Desk Head for UBS Wealth Management between 2011 and 2016, leading a team of client advisers at a significant time of industry change.

Between 2007 and 2011 he served as Divisional Chief Financial Officer for Macquarie Private Wealth, part of Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG), where he led financial control functions, transformation management programs and drove several synergistic acquisitions.

Commenting on the appointment, Centrepoint CEO, Angus Benbow, said: “I am delighted to welcome Brendon to Centrepoint and to our Executive Team. He brings a unique blend of capabilities and experience which are ideally suited to our business as we continue to focus on the growth opportunities presented in the market.”

“Brendon understands the drivers of value for adviser groups, having led some of Australia’s highest-profile financial advice teams over the past decade. He also brings a track record of delivering successful outcomes for shareholders by driving organic and M&A-led growth while optimising capital management for businesses across a range of sectors.”

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Alan Fisher

Business services provider to financial advisers, Centrepoint Alliance Limited (ASX: CAF) (‘Centrepoint’, the ‘Company’ or the ‘Group’), has announced a turnaround in profit for the financial year ended 30 June 2019 (FY19), and a successful transition to a new revenue model.

The company reported a pre-tax profit of $1.2m (compared to FY18 $3.4m loss) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $2.4m (compared to FY18 $1.6m loss).

Chief Executive Officer Angus Benbow said the FY19 results validated the new strategy announced in August 2018. “Last year, we embarked on a new strategy to focus on providing services to advisers, with the introduction of a new pricing model which repositions the business for growth. I’m very pleased to say these initiatives are showing strong signs of success.”

Centrepoint was one of the first in the market to move to a fee-based revenue model. “The financial advice sector’s business model need to change”, he said. “We are leading by example and we were one of the first scaled advice businesses to reset pricing.”

Mr Benbow said that 86% of firms in the Centrepoint authorised representative network had transitioned to the new pricing model. “Our revenue mix is moving to be predominantly sourced from service fees paid by advisers.”

FY19 Summary

• Profit before tax of $1.2m (FY18 $3.4m loss)
• EBITDA of $2.4m (FY18 $1.6m loss)
• Accelerated transition of revenue mix towards recurring fees
• 86% of adviser firms retained under new pricing model (195 of 227 firms)
• 80% increase in new onboarded advisers
• Chairman, Alan Fisher, said: “Centrepoint is well placed to take advantage of the disruption in the wealth management sector.

“Our business transformation is progressing well, and we remain focussed on assessing partnerships, acquisition opportunities and enhancing shareholder value.

“During the year, we have welcomed new advice businesses to the network and continue to see financial advisers proactively looking for a quality business services partner. In fact, we recruited a record number of new financial advisers in the fourth quarter of FY19. We continue to assess more firms, as they are increasingly attracted to our service offer.”

Mr Benbow said that there is ever more pressure on advisers and advice firms – costs are rising, regulatory requirements are increasing, and revised education standards are transforming the industry. “We know advisers are feeling fatigued with the level of change,” he said.

“This is why we have implemented a model where both self-licensed and corporate licensed advisers can access a full suite of business services and support. With the quality and scale of our offer, we are well placed to support advisers as they adapt to this new landscape by providing the tools and services they need to succeed.”

Centrepoint offers a complete suite of governance, business management, client growth and advice services that enable advisers to spend more time providing advice to their clients.

Looking forward, Mr Benbow said that Centrepoint’s areas of focus for FY20 are to:

• Launch fee-based offer for self-licensed advisers
• Drive continued growth in licensed network
• Further invest in technology and data to enable greater scale and superior service to advice firms

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Sunshine Coast firm, Ethica Private Wealth Specialists, was named Advice Firm of the Year (gross revenue less than $1M), and Brisbane firm, Financial Advice Matters Group, was named Advice Firm of the Year (gross revenue in excess of $1M).

Ethica Private Wealth Specialists beat finalists, Centaur Financial Services and Convergence Wealth Management, to take out their category. Michael Goodwin accepted the award on behalf of his firm and thanked Centrepoint Alliance and his Management Consultant, Jason McArthur, for ‘making us look at ourselves’ and for ‘pushing us outside of our comfort zone’.

Darren Smith, CEO of Financial Advice Matters Group, said the award was ‘unexpected’ and ‘meant a lot’. He thanked his team at Financial Advice Matters Group for all their work and congratulated the other finalists in his category – Citadel Wealth Solutions and Stephens Plattfuss & Co Financial Services – saying, “it’s great to be associated with some great businesses.”

Group Executive Advice, Soula Cargakis, said this year’s awards, which were independently administered by Business Health, are an indicator of the high quality of advice firms in Centrepoint’s community.

Ms Cargakis said, “Stephens Plattfuss & Co Financial Services were actually the category winners of last year’s Advice Firm of the Year (gross revenue less than $1M). It’s just fabulous to see them as a finalist in Advice Firm of the Year (gross revenue in excess of $1M) this year and is a wonderful demonstration of their success. I’m thrilled that Centrepoint has been able to play a role in helping them achieve that.”

Angus Benbow, CEO of Centrepoint Alliance and member of this year’s judging panel, said all the award winners and finalists should be proud of their achievements and recognition. He said the judging panel, which also included Ray Henderson of Business Health, Phil Kewin of AFA, and Simon Hoyle of CoreData, were impressed with the quality of firms they judged.

Mr Benbow commented, “Taking part in the Advice Firm of the Year awards for the first time has been a great experience and my congratulations go to all the winners and finalists. It takes courage and confidence to put your business forward to be judged and I applaud all the advisers in our community who submitted entries for doing so. The quality of businesses being run by the winners and finalists are a credit to our community.”

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Angus Benbow

Centrepoint Alliance has set out the key features of its new strategic growth plan, while reporting that it grew EBITDA from continuing operations by 4% to $5.5 million (excluding one-off items) in FY18.

A net loss after tax of $6.3 million was reported due to the impact of one-off items including legacy claims, restructure costs, impacts from the Royal Commission and a change to the deferred tax asset.

Angus Benbow, who joined the ASX listed organisation as new Chief Executive Officer in April 2018, said the organisation has launched a new strategy to focus on strengthening its medium-to-long term future. The strategy refresh has looked at all aspects of the organisation and involved a comprehensive review of the organisation’s business portfolio as well as a new organisational structure to better align to the market opportunities.

Mr Benbow said, “The financial advice industry is facing an increasingly complex and rapidly changing environment, which is impacting the whole industry. It is imperative that our business adapts to the challenges and opportunities this presents.

“Therefore, Centrepoint will focus on transitioning to an advice and business services organisation where the advisers’ needs are at the heart of everything we do. We have a strong community of like-minded advisers that enables us to take a leadership position in the industry as it moves to a more transparent environment.”

Mr Benbow also noted, “The 4% increase in EBITDA to $5.5million, is underpinned by an 18% increase in operating cashflow to $6.4 million. This is a pleasing outcome given the challenging and uncertain industry backdrop. As a business, we are well placed to grow our strong community of advisers while we transition to a new service model powered through data and insight.”

Centrepoint continued to attract quality firms to its community through Alliance Wealth (licenced advice) and Associated Advisory Practices (self-licensed advice), and Funds under Management and Administration (FUMA) increased 11% to $4.1 billion.

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Soula Cargakis

Centrepoint Alliance Limited (ASX Code: CAF) (‘Centrepoint’ or the ‘Group’) announced it has grown EBITDA from core continuing operations, excluding one-off expenditure, by 9% to $2.4m from the prior comparable period (pcp). Centrepoint also announced a fully franked interim ordinary dividend of 1.2 cents per share.

Centrepoint continues to deliver to its strategic plan by transforming its Wealth business with Alliance Wealth (licensed advice) and Associated Advisory Practices (self-licensed advice) attracting 90 new quality firms to the Group in the past two years.

Centrepoint’s Funds under Management and Administration (FUMA) increased 14% to $3.9bn on pcp – with gross inflows consistently above $500m – and its Managed Account solution continues to see strong support with balances increasing 83% over the 12 months to $434m.

Significant investments were made during the year into new advice technology, additional outsourced services for advice firms, marketing, and salaried advisers. This, along with an additional legacy claims provision relating to financial product advice given prior to 1 July 2010, the announced appointment of Angus Benbow as CEO, and the decision to unwind the executive loan share schemes resulted in a net loss after tax of $0.8m.

Soula Cargakis, Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our core business continues to strengthen in terms of the depth and breadth of solutions – all of which are focused on the clients’ best interest. We have a strong platform and we are looking forward to Angus Benbow joining the business as CEO to lead the next stage of growth.”

Further strategic investments were made in the development of Neos Life – an Australian based life insurance business which will offer well rated, client focused life insurance products through financial advisers. Additionally, Centrepoint’s investment in a Chief Investment Officer will shortly result in the launch of Presidium portfolios which will strengthen our solutions for clients and advisers.

The Chairman, Alan Fisher, noted, “The underlying results are a reflection of strong employee engagement and better client outcomes – this continues to differentiate Centrepoint. There is a great opportunity to increase growth and continue to drive improvements across all areas of our business to improve the experience for our advisers and their clients.”

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Mr Benbow will join Shadforth next month from News Corp Australia, where he is currently a General Manager.

Prior to this he held senior leadership roles at Perpetual (focusing on high net worth client segments), Booz and Company and was an officer in the Royal Australian Navy.

IOOF Managing Director, Chris Kelaher said IOOF was delighted to have attracted a candidate of Mr Benbow’s calibre.

“Angus’ financial services, business strategy and general leadership experience, together with his high net worth expertise make him a superb fit for this role.

“His brief is to embrace this consistently performing business and talented team and help lead Shadforth to a new level of accomplishment,” he said.

Mr Kelaher paid tribute to the strong contribution of previous CEO Nick Bedding who left SFG in late August for a career break, after seven years at the helm of the company and almost a year helping it transition to a member of the IOOF Group.

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