Mark Euvrard

Sequoia Financial Group Ltd (Sequoia) CEO Garry Crole has announced the successful acquisition of Sydney headquartered national licensee Libertas Financial Planning Pty Ltd (Libertas).

Under the arrangement, Libertas will remain separate from InterPrac and continue to operate under its own AFSL, brand and identity.

Commenting further on the announcement, Garry Crole said Libertas is a successful and well-established financial advice dealer group that was founded by industry stalwart Mark Euvrard in 2012.

Today, Libertas has an extensive, Australia-wide network of approximately 70 authorised representatives, predominantly on the eastern seaboard.

“The acquisition provides Sequoia with further scale in the advice marketplace and based on the latest Money Management dealer group survey makes Sequoia the 3rd largest non-bank owned financial adviser group in the country”, said Garry Crole.

Libertas’ Managing Director Mark Euvrard said, “Our business was highly sought after and I wanted to ensure our advisers will be a part of a quality organisation. I am very pleased to be working with Garry Crole and the well-respected Sequoia team of industry professionals”.

“I’m confident the Libertas planners will benefit immensely from being part of a larger, well-regarded licensee focussed on the provision of highly compliant advice and client service”.

The financial adviser market is undergoing major changes in the wake of the Royal Commission and Sequoia is well placed to attract quality planning groups and advice practitioners.

Sequoia’s leading regulatory and compliance framework, technology and product access makes us a highly attractive partner affirmed Garry Crole.

The acquisition of Libertas will be Sequoia’s 8 th AFSL business that operate under their own identity and license within the Sequoia Group.

These include:

• InterPrac Financial Planning Pty Ltd
• InterPrac General Insurance Pty Ltd
• Insurance Finance Services Pty Ltd
• Libertas Financial Planning Pty Ltd
• Morrison Securities Pty Ltd
• My Own Super Fund Pty Ltd
• Sequoia Asset Management Pty Ltd
• Sequoia Wealth Management Pty Ltd

Each Sequoia owned licensee is a separate AFSL holder and supported by an extensive service offering and framework of compliance, education and support services.

In addition, Sequoia also assists financial advisers and practice owners to acquire and operate under their own AFSL.

Prior to the acquisition, Sequoia had been providing some of these services to Libertas over the last 5 months. Garry Crole concluded, “Libertas will provide Sequoia with additional scale in financial advice with immediate financial benefit to the Group and is highly EPS accretive”.

“We are actively recruiting financial advisers where they fit with our culture and client service objectives and are delighted to be working with the Libertas team”.

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Mark Sinclair

Libertas Financial Planning Pty Ltd (Libertas) Director, Mark Euvrard, has announced that Eagle Financial Pty Ltd is the first accounting firm to join the dealer group.

Currently, Libertas has around 30 advisers operating as authorised representatives under its AFSL and the dealer group recently expanded its offer to include accountants that require an AFSL from July 2016.

Commenting on the Libertas offer for accountants Mark Euvrard said “We have been preparing for this for some time to provide a facility for those accountants seeking an independent / non institutionally aligned or owned dealer group that can provide them all the tools and services required to fulfil their financial planning needs compliantly, as well the latest calculator tools to assist them address the SMSF needs of their clients”.

“History tells us there will be a rush at the eleventh hour as July 1, 2016 approaches, so we have positioned Libertas now and are promoting a special offer for those accounting practices that wish to provide SMSF advice and position their businesses well in advance of the forthcoming deadline”.

Located on Sydney’s northern beaches, Eagle Financial prides itself on being a young, dynamic and innovative chartered accounting practice committed to adding value to their clients with proactive tax and business solutions.  Headed by David Olofinsky and fellow director Adam Johns the firm is growing rapidly to meet the demands of business owners and clients in the area.

“For us, the Libertas offer ticked all the boxes”, said David Olofinsky.  “Furthermore, the software provided for TTR, adequacy and super modelling being automatically downloaded into a compliant SOA allows Eagle Financial to seamlessly deliver SMSF services to our clients compliantly and most importantly, we have the infrastructure to further expand our marketplace offering in this area”.

“The special offer to join Libertas at this time was a ‘no brainer’ as we can now go forward knowing Eagle Financial is trained and compliant – avoiding the last minute panic to fulfil ASIC requirements and as a result, it will be business as usual for our clients in July 2016”.

Mark Euvrard has observed that it is now becoming clear that the path to getting either one’s own AFSL through a consulting firm such as My Dealer Services, or joining another AFSL is actually quite time consuming and far from being a straight forward process.

Mark Euvrard has observed that it is now becoming clear that the path to getting either one’s own AFSL through a consulting firm such as My Dealer Services, or joining another AFSL is not straight forward.

“Despite the generous concessions provided by ASIC, it is obvious that most accountants are not aware of their obligations – especially with respect to the training required prior to receiving their Authorised Representative certificate”.

“The alliance with Mentor Education, one of Australia’s leading specialist providers of quality training in financial services, fulfilled all our requirements and Libertas can provide accountants joining the dealer group with all their appropriate transitional training”.

Mentor Education was established in 2002 by founder and Managing Director Dr Mark Sinclair.  With over a decade of marketing, sales, course delivery and assessment experience within the financial services industry, Mentor has built strong links with industry associations, universities, licensees, practice owners and financial planners / advisers.

“One of our greatest strengths as a quality educator in the financial services industry is that we recognise that most practitioners deal with immense demands on their time.  To assist industry professionals maintain a work / life / study balance and achieve their ASIC accreditation requirements, we have developed a number of flexible study options”, said Mark Sinclair.

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MDS & Libertas offer tools to build it yourself.

My Dealer Services Pty Ltd (MDS) Chairman Don Wiggins has announced that the specialist support service provider for advisers seeking their own Australia Financial Services Licence (AFSL) has teamed together with Libertas Solutions Pty Ltd (Libertas) in a strategic partnership to address growing demand by advisers to operate under their own licence, not only as an individual, but now also as a group.

Don Wiggins also confirmed that the MDS – Libertas strategic partnership has achieved their first success by setting up and providing the back office infrastructure for a group of 20 advisory practices that came together to establish their own dealer group.

Following the success of its first licence offering, Libertas Managing Director Mark Euvrard confirmed that plans were well advanced to launch a new offering in early October.

“The vision of Libertas is to allow advisers with similar interests and marketplace offering to join forces and operate under a dealer group that is specifically focused on their very unique needs and requirements”, said Euvrard.

“At the same time, they are able to outsource the dealer group services to an industry professional thus allowing the advisers to focus on their clients and related business activities”.

The benefits of the Libertas small focussed dealer group approach versus the larger option are significant added Euvrard sighting low PI excess and costs, quality independent research, ongoing CPD offering, commission with Fee Disclosure Statement capabilities and strategy focussed PD days.

All these positives combine to make the independent AFSL offering by MDS and Libertas quite compelling.

Supporting the Libertas experience, Don Wiggins said that the number of enquiries from advisers wishing to set up their own licence has continued unabated all year and he expects that this will continue into the foreseeable future. This new group offering gives advisers a new option in the independent AFSL space.

“The driving force behind the interest in MDS and Libertas is the demand from advisers seeking a viable cost effective alternative that provides them with independence and control over their destiny whilst operating within a fully compliant team / collegiate environment”.

“The MDS – Libertas AFSL facility has been developed so that any group of individual advisers can move right in without the wait normally associated with starting a dealer group from scratch”, concluded Don Wiggins.

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MDS Chairman, Don Wiggins said “We now have a complete offering with senior experience in both compliance and licensee services.”

“We can manage the process from getting an AFSL, to managing the ongoing compliance requirements, thus letting the advisor focus on his clients and run the practice in a practical and cost effective manner.”

Mark Euvrard has been a member of the Institute of Australian Chartered Accountants since 1980 and is an Accredited Financial Planning Specialist with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. He has an extensive background in managing small-to-medium sized Australian
subsidiaries of International Corporations. He was the Australian General Manager of the largest dental equipment manufacturer in the US, was General Manager of the team which rescued the Spinners Team of Tradesmen franchise from Administration and successfully headed up the company which introduced smoke alarms into Australia.

MDS was established to provide specialist support services to current AFSL holders and advisers looking to acquire their own AFSL in a practical, cost effective manner.

In addition, MDS assists licensees in their compliance obligations from monitoring and supervision of authorised representatives to training and ongoing regulatory requirements.

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