Fisher will join VBP on June 1 as CEO, replacing Nathan Jacobsen, who was appointed Chief Operating Officer of VBP parent company, AZ NGA, in January but continued to oversee the management of VBP.

Fisher’s appointment brings an experienced and dedicated leader to VBP at an important time for the business with advice firms increasingly looking to business partners for support to adopt new technologies like automation and AI, improve cyber security and risk management, and scale sustainably, according to Jacobsen.

“Mark is a highly respected leader with proven experience running successful businesses, driving growth initiatives and leading large teams through periods of change and disruption, and we are very excited to have him on board to take VBP forward,” he said.

“Over the past few years, VBP has expanded its services and offer to advice, accounting and mortgage broking businesses, and opened new offices in Cagayan De Oro, in the Philippines. The business has ambitious plans to continue growing and delivering a broad range of outsourcing services to clients.”

Prior to Godfrey Pembroke, Fisher was Managing Director of Securitor Financial Group. He also previously held senior executive roles at BT Financial Group, Macquarie Private Wealth and AXA.

“I’m excited to join VBP and grow the group’s position as a leading specialist of outsourced services and solutions to financial advisers and accountants,” Fisher said.

“VBP is also passionate about being a great place to work and providing career development opportunities for its people, which I strongly believe in.”

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Nathan Jacobsen

Principal advisers looking to build large, highly profitable businesses must choose between being a great adviser or a great chief executive officer because, at scale, they can’t be both, according to outsourcing specialists, Vital Business Partners (VBP).

In a new paper titled, From cottage industry to professional companies: VBP’s guide to scaling with confidence, the outsourcing firm claims that fast growing firms often encounter significant challenges, including declining earnings, in the initial stages of scaling up because they don’t have the resources and capability to manage the complexity that comes with running a larger business.

However, this trap is avoidable if founders can develop their leadership skills or bring in leaders with the right experience and skillset, the guide claims.

Nathan Jacobsen, VBP chief executive officer, said that businesses focused on accelerating growth through M&A and organic activity needed to remove principal dependency by having clearly defined roles and responsibilities, formal systems and processes for efficiently deliver advice, and a robust risk management framework.

“A declining EBITDA margin is not inevitable, demonstrated by at least some of the many thriving large advice businesses, but scaling a small-to-medium firms requires different choices and skills around operational efficiency, risk management, people leadership and strategy,” he said.

VBP’s guide provides insights into the process of scaling up, based on the group’s experience working with hundreds of advice firms. It aims to help principal advisers determine if that strategy is the right path for them.

Jacobsen, who is also chief operating officer of VBP’s parent company AZ NGA, said scaling up had the potential to deliver many benefits, such as operational and cost efficiencies, better access to capital, and a more structured approach to growth, but it was not for everyone.

“Building and running a successful business of scale requires a lot of hard work and significant ongoing investment in people, systems, processes and technology, which many people do not have the skill, experience or risk appetite to undertake,” he said.

For those that do, size has many advantages and we’re seeing a clear trend of businesses scaling, as heightened regulatory scrutiny and rising compliance costs put pressure on businesses to drive efficiencies and improved client outcomes.”

The VBP guide identifies and defines the two main types of advice businesses and the various challenges, opportunities and risks they face when it comes to scaling. It outlines key considerations for business owners before pursuing an aggressive growth strategy and provides a rough blueprint for scaling up.

Read the report.

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Jacobsen is currently Chief Executive Officer of AZ NGA-backed outsourcing specialist, Vital Business Partners (VBP).

Prior to VBP, Jacobsen held a number of senior executive positions including Managing Director of listed company Diverger, Managing Director of Paragem, and General Manager roles at Perpetual Private.

At AZ NGA, he will report to Group Chief Executive Officer Paul Barrett and oversee the delivery of the group’s unique proposition to accounting and advisory firms.

He will have responsibility for driving business transformation initiatives, including technology and integration, and building the systems and infrastructure to support AZ NGA’s rapid growth.

Barrett said that, after an extensive and competitive search, Jacobsen stood out as the ideal candidate to join AZ NGA’s leadership team at this critical stage in the advice platform’s journey.

“Nathan is a highly respected, proven leader and I’m excited to have him on board to help execute our vision and strategy to build Super firms and Centres of Excellence,” he said.

“Under Nathan’s leadership, VBP has achieved significant operational and cost efficiencies, boosted staff and client satisfaction, and successfully launched new services. VBP is in a strong position to continue growing and meeting the outsourcing needs of advisory businesses. “

Jacobsen said: “I’m excited about the opportunity to work closely with Paul and the team to accelerate the growth of AZ NGA and execute the group’s ambitious strategy.”

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Nathan Jacobsen

Outsourcing specialists, Vital Business Partners (VBP) has urged financial advice businesses to review their outsourcing arrangements to ensure adequate governance and risk management, following the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s recent review into the use of offshore service providers by financial services entities.

VBP has also released an 18-page guide detailing how the group is assisting advice businesses to meet their legal obligations in relation to outsourcing.

Last month, ASIC released the findings of its year-long review of offshore outsourcing identifying significant variations in the quality of risk management arrangements in relation to the use of offshore staff and calling on licensees and advice businesses to regularly assess the performance and suitability of their outsourcing arrangements.

Nathan Jacobsen, Chief Executive Officer of VBP, said the ASIC report highlighted the wide discrepancies that can exist between outsourcing models in terms of governance and compliance, reinforcing the value of partnering with an experienced outsourced service provider (OSP) that had proactive oversight and strong risk management capabilities to protect both clients and advice businesses.

“VBP is highly supportive of ASIC’s recommendations and heightened focus on offshore outsourcing to ensure that both consumers and advice businesses are not unnecessarily exposed to harm, such as their data being stolen through cyber incidents,” he said.

“Whether a business has a direct outsourced contracting arrangement or uses an intermediary, the obligations around areas like data, privacy and cyber security are the same. For those that choose to go direct, sole responsibility for assessing and monitoring outsourcing risk can be a significant burden.”

According to ASIC, licensees and advisers are exposed to critical risks associated with the loss of control over key functions to OSPs, disruptions to operational services and conflicting obligations due to foreign laws, requiring them to urgently close governance gaps and address weaknesses in their use of offshore providers.

Jacobsen said the advice and wealth management industry could expect greater scrutiny of offshore outsourcing arrangements, given the large and growing number of businesses outsourcing tasks to enable them to scale sustainably, improve performance and focus on seeing clients. www.virtualbusinesspartners.com.au Commercial in Confidence +61 (0)2 8999 9696 2

“It is in the best interests of consumers, advisers and the broader industry that all parties involved in the provision of advice, including suppliers and contractors, operate with a continuous focus on improving information security practices,” he said.

“The risks are only rising guaranteeing further regulatory scrutiny, and possibly intervention, if the industry cannot effectively and proactively manage these risks.”

VBP maintains a governance and risk management framework that meets the standards set out in Section 912A(1)(h) of the Corporations Act and the group’s internal controls, compliance programs and risk assessment processes are aligned with international standards, ISO 27001:2022 and ISO 31000:2018.

VBP’s frameworks are reviewed annually and actively supported by senior management to ensure ongoing regulatory alignment and operational resilience.

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Nathan Jacobsen

Outsourcing specialists, Vital Business Partners (VBP) and integrated financial advisory firm, Yarra Lane, have partnered to launch a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) consulting service, which leverages artificial intelligence (AI), to help advisers streamline and scale their operations, deliver a more consistent client experience, and retain talent.

The RPA consulting service aims to support accounting and advice businesses to automate repeatable, manual tasks using software robots to free human team members up to focus on more interesting, higher value tasks.

VBP and Yarra Lane have combined their resources and IP to develop the service, which is delivered and managed by VBP’s local and offshore specialists.

Nathan Jacobsen, Chief Executive Officer, VBP, said a skills shortage in Australia, and the supply and demand imbalance in financial advice, was causing businesses to find alternative ways to increase their capacity without adding advisers and support staff.

“In other industries and professions, RPA is widely used to improve processes and drive growth, and we’re already seeing some advice businesses use RPA for tasks like diarising meetings and sending calendar invitations, gathering information and reports, and using templates to draft client emails,” he said.

“There are hundreds of accountants and advisers grappling with how to use technology and AI in their business but it’s not as simple as running an RFP process and selecting a solution anymore because technology is advancing so quickly, which is why partnering with an outsourcing specialist is an optimal solution.”

As part of the service, VBP works with businesses to map out, understand and break down their processes into parts; identify tasks that can be automated; and build, deploy and manage software robots to automate workflow.

Nick Perrett, Chief Executive Officer, Yarra Lane said advisory firms could design and develop RPA solutions in just a few months and start seeing tangible, measurable results in a short-period of time.

“Software robots can do a lot of the heavy lifting for advisers,” he said.

“In a sense, advisers can work through the day and their bots can go to work at night so the next morning, advisers can focus on higher value activities like spending time with clients.”

Perrett said that partnering with a large, experienced and well-resourced organisation like VBP had delivered significant benefits for Yarra Lane, and would be an ideal, cost-effective solution for other advice businesses.

“The average accounting and financial planning business can’t spend hundreds of thousands on developing technology and they don’t need to because for a relatively small build and ongoing fee they can achieve a lot. That’s incredibly exciting for business owners,” he said.

“SMEs don’t want or need to try and stay ahead of the game, especially because of how quickly things change in this space, but they can leverage the resources of an experienced partner to drive business efficiencies and growth.”

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Nathan Jacobsen

Financial planning business, RI Toowoomba Group, has significantly expanded its relationship with outsourcing specialists, Vital Business Partners (VBP), by adding four financial planning assistants and upskilling existing senior financial planning assistants to provide paraplanning services.

Steve Browning, Chief Operating Officer, RI Toowoomba Group, said the business had grown quickly over the past year, primarily through M&A, creating a relatively urgent need for capable back-office resources to support the group’s advice team, which is spread across five locations including Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

This led RI Toowoomba Group to engage VBP to increase its number of outsourced staff based in the Philippines to nine, up from five previously.

Locally, the business has 35 employees including thirteen advisers.

“We’ve had a strong partnership with VBP since 2018. Over that time, we had a stable team of five in Cebu but as a result of recent acquisitions, our VBP resources have almost doubled to ensure we continue to deliver reliable service and operational excellence,” Browning said.

“VBP gives us the confidence to focus on M&A opportunities and continue growing because we know they are there to support us to scale our back-office, and build and manage our offshore team.”

Nathan Jacobsen, Chief Executive Officer of VBP said advice businesses, particularly those growing quickly, needed access to a large, qualified pool of talent to perform back-office functions and free business leaders to focus on value creation and strategic initiatives.

“Advisers are time-poor and many have ambitious goals and targets so they shouldn’t be distracted by day-to-day administration,” he said.

“Demand for advice has never been higher, due to demographic changes, the increasing complexities of life, and heightened global economic and geopolitical uncertainty.”

“Advisers are working extremely hard to help clients understand their position and manage their affairs. They need a trusted, experienced partner to come alongside them to help recruit, train and manage teams, so they can focus on helping people and growing their business.”

Established in 1992, RI Toowoomba Group specialises in financial planning and retirement advice to mass affluent people living in regional Queensland.

The group’s business strategy focuses on achieving the necessary scale in key markets, expanding into new regions, and enhancing operational efficiency by streamlining processes and digitising the client experience.

“We’ve had some challenges in recent years, namely too many clients and not enough advisers, so we set out to solve that problem by acquiring like-minded businesses in areas where we had existing clients but not a local presence,” Browning said.

“We identified areas where we had large cohorts of clients and found quality businesses and people that had capacity to take care of existing clients, look after our clients in the area, and continue growing too. With VBP, we’ve been able to support those businesses and focus on executing our strategy.”

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Jacobsen’s appointment follows the recent decision by David Carney, VBP Co-founder and longstanding CEO, to step back from day-to-day management to focus on business development, marketing and innovation.

Paul Barrett, Chairman of VBP and CEO of AZ NGA, said Jacobsen’s track record of successfully transforming wealth management businesses and his experience in strategy, technology and M&A strongly positioned him to lead VBP into its next phase of growth.

“Nathan is a highly respected financial services executive and we are extremely fortunate to have him on board to lead this dynamic business. VBP’s vision and purpose is to support professional advisory firms to grow and deliver generational change for their clients and, over the last decade, it has become an invaluable business partner to some of Australia’s best advice businesses,” Barrett said.

“David Carney has done an incredible job of turning VBP into Australia’s leading adviser services utility and we are pleased that he will remain with the business to facilitate a smooth leadership transition and play a key role in the group’s ongoing success.”

In his new role as Head of Growth, Carney will report to Jacobsen.

VBP was established in 2013 by David Carney and David Deegan to deliver a range of outsourced business solutions including financial planning administration, accounting and bookkeeping, paraplanning and mortgage broking support.

In 2023, the group acquired Elixir Consulting, significantly expanding its capability and capacity to provide business coaching, strategy and consulting.

The Australian-owned, Sydney and Philippines-based group, which has over 1250 team members and 260 clients, is a Certified B Corporation (B Corp) and has consistently been recognised by Great Place to Work.

According to Jacobsen, the skills shortage in Australia was holding businesses back from helping more people, which increased the need and relevance of VBP’s proposition.

“One of the biggest challenges facing businesses is finding and maintaining talent, and VBP is ideally positioned to help advisers solve that problem. There is also an exciting opportunity to help advisers achieve scale and efficiency benefits through process optimization and the effective use of technology,” he said.

“I am excited to lead this fantastic business, as we continue investing in people, products and solutions.”

Jacobsen departed Diverger in March, following the group’s merger with Count. Prior to his role at Diverger, he held a number of senior positions including Managing Director of Paragem and General Manager of Perpetual Private.

He was also formerly an officer in the Australian Navy.

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Nathan Jacobsen

Diverger has acquired a 55% stake in Melbourne-based Paragem advice firm Atkinson Saynor Private Wealth using its transitional equity model.

Far from ‘owning’ practices, this transitional equity model is designed to partner with advice practices looking to corporatise their business model, achieve scale, execute a succession plan or drive future growth.

This transaction follows Diverger’s first transitional equity investment in 2022 when it acquired a 35% equity interest in McGregor Wealth Management, a QLD based GPS Wealth practice looking to partner on its next phase of growth.

According to Diverger CEO Nathan Jacobsen, this latest partnership is with an experienced adviser transitioning into a principal role at a successful advice business, whilst delivering a targeted return on invested capital for Diverger shareholders.

“Succession challenges when transitioning a successful advice firm to a new principal is a key issue for many.  But with an injection of capital, a tailored yet flexible equity model and the support of a like-minded partner, these can be overcome.”

David Saynor, an employed adviser who has worked in the business for 20 years and now becomes the Principal at Atkinson Saynor Private Wealth, said this was the start of the next chapter for the business. “it is exciting to be part of a thriving advice business with a concrete plan for the future and the ability to provide our clients with a generational advice model that can service more Australians moving forward.”

Diverger’s flexible transitional equity model operates with either a short or long-term partnership to provide the right level of support to an advice firm. If a business is looking for a short-term transformation opportunity and then to exit the shareholding, an agreement can be made to buy the shareholding back or to facilitate on-sell to successors. A long-term hold is also available if the investment is viable for both parties, the partnership is strong and there is agreement on the future growth plans.

“There are a lot of single shareholder practices in the $1-3 million range with significant growth ambitions but which are constrained by various factors,” said Jacobsen.  “We talk to the Principal and map out a pathway to growth and then look at investing capital and resources to support that growth.  We are passionate advocates for the future of advice to ensure its sustainability so Australians can access financial advice when they need to.”

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Nathan Jacobsen

Quarterly update

• Record net inflows for FY18 of $2.4b, an increase of 24.1% on pcp
• June Quarter net inflows^[1] of $739m, the 2nd highest quarter on record, with gross inflows of $1.0b
• Funds under Administration (FUA) of $8.3b at 30 June 2018 (up 51.2% on June 2017)
• 22 new licensees signed distribution agreements during the quarter representing significant growth opportunities, including Fitzpatricks Private Wealth with initial flows already received
• HUB24 ranked 1st in terms of adviser primary platform advocacy and 3rd for overall adviser platform satisfaction in the Investment Trends May 2018 Planner Technology Report
• HUB24 ranked 2nd in terms of adviser investment platform satisfaction in the Adviser Ratings 2018 Australian Financial Advice Landscape report
• Development has commenced to facilitate the FUA transition of Fitzpatricks MDA which is on track to occur late calendar 2018
• A new HUB24 core offering will be launched during the next month to secure clients with lower average balances seeking simpler, lower cost solutions

Net inflows for Q4 are the 2nd highest on record being only behind Q4 FY17 (which benefited from regulatory superannuation changes). Average monthly net inflows for FY18 are $202m compared to $161m for FY17.

HUB24’s retail products received 69% of net inflows with white label versions of the platform receiving the remaining 31%. Net inflows were diversified across both new and existing advisers and were equally split between IDPS and Super accounts.

According to the latest available market share data, HUB24 achieved 4th place with 12.3% of annual net inflows across the industry at 31 March 2018^[2]. This market share of net inflows rose to 23.7% for the March quarter and the company’s overall platform market share of FUA has grown from 0.8% as at 31 December 2017 to 0.9% at 31 March 2018 . These market share increases illustrate the ongoing shift in wealth management towards market leading and innovative platform solutions and away from large institutional platforms.

During the quarter, 91 new advisers were introduced to the platform across all licensees while 22 distribution agreements were signed with new licensees including Fitzpatricks Private Wealth.

Our continued investment in client led platform development and our distribution team has proven to be timely given industry events. Outcomes from the Banking and Financial Services Royal Commission are likely to accelerate the existing shift away from large institutional platforms to newer market leading platforms as advisers seek to meet the best interests of their clients. As a result, HUB24 is already working with a number of institutionally aligned advisers to provide an alternative platform solution.

In addition, three out of the four major banks in Australia have announced plans to exit wealth management in various forms, and both BT and Macquarie Bank have announced the cessation of grandfathered commissions for their internal adviser channels. We anticipate these changes will accelerate the transition of FUA away from traditional vertically integrated platforms for which HUB24 is ideally positioned. Market conditions are favourable for HUB24’s ongoing growth and we will continue to invest in distribution, operational and technology capabilities to take advantage of this structural change and the unique opportunity that it presents.

Business update

Subsequent to the June announcement of an agreement with Fitzpatricks Private Wealth, HUB24 is on track to deliver a tailored version of the platform for this group’s advisers and clients by the end of July.  The transition of more than $700m of FUA currently held in their MDA service is on track for delivery by the end of 2018. Separately to this transition, a number of Fitzpatrick Private Wealth advisers have already commenced using HUB24’s branded products whilst the tailored platform is in development.

ConnectHUB, the joint development initiative between HUB24 and Agility Applications, continues in pilot phase with a further release planned for Q2 FY19. The ConnectHUB development has been instrumental in winning significant new clients, including Fitzpatricks Private Wealth due to our investment in historical performance reporting and automated client onboarding capabilities.

Within the next month we will launch the HUB24 core offering within our IDPS and Super products, which will provide an entry point for clients with lower than average account balances, or those seeking a simpler solution. This new offer will provide access to a limited investment menu, typically a range of diversified managed portfolios from 3rd party providers, often at a lower administration fee than the more comprehensive platform. There has been significant interest in this type of offer which is expected to increase the attractiveness of HUB24 as the primary platform of choice for advisers.  Our enhanced products will now have broader appeal across a greater proportion of a typical adviser’s client base and the core offer will be quickly rolled out to several existing licensees.

Advisers who choose HUB24 as their primary platform are strong advocates. In the Investment Trends May 2018 Planner Technology report more of our primary platform users than any other platform selected HUB24 as the best platform in the market. HUB24 also ranked in the top 3 for 13 of the categories surveyed and took out the number one spot for business development manager service, tax optimisation tools and the range of investments available. These results are testimony to HUB24’s ability to balance its investment across platform development, customer experience and sales and support functions whilst continuing to be the fastest growing investment and superannuation wrap platform in the market relative to its size.

Leadership changes at Paragem

Nathan Jacobsen, the recently appointed Managing Director of Paragem will commence with the company in September. Mr. Jacobsen was previously General Manager at Perpetual Private, where he was responsible for developing new market segments in Perpetual’s high net worth advice and trustee business.

HUB24 is looking forward to the ongoing growth of Paragem and is pleased to have Ian Knox remain involved in the business as Chairman of Paragem to assist with this growth.

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[1] Net inflows represent gross inflows less outflows and do not include market movement
[2] Source: Strategic Insights (Plan For Life). Analysis of Wrap, Platform and Master Trust Managed Funds at March 2018. HUB24 is the fastest growing wrap platform relative to its size in percentage terms, 4th fastest in terms of dollar based net inflows.

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Paragem, a licensee which provides comprehensive licensing solutions for professional financial advisers is a subsidiary of leading wealth management firm HUB24. It was announced in April that the business founders were stepping away from operational involvement, with Ian Knox remaining in the role of Chairman.

Mr Jacobsen was previously General Manager at Perpetual Private, where he was responsible for developing new market segments in its high net worth advice and trustee business. This included growing advisory services for medical specialists starting out in private practice as well as investment and trustee services for Indigenous communities looking to build greater financial sustainability.

Commenting on his appointment, HUB24 Group CEO, Andrew Alcock, said: “Nathan’s strong leadership, business strategy and experience growing advice businesses make him the perfect fit to take Paragem forward. It was also important for us to find someone who aligns with the culture and values that define Paragem.

“I’d like to thank Ian Knox, Charlie Haynes and the Paragem practices for building an exceptional licensee and we are looking forward to both Ian and Nathan’s leadership for Paragem’s ongoing growth and evolution.”

“More than ever, it is critical for licensees, advisers, platforms and technology providers to work hand-in-hand to create efficient and compliant business models. “There is a great opportunity for this industry to reshape how we provide great outcomes for our clients and both HUB24 and Paragem are committed to this goal.”

Mr Jacobsen will start at Paragem in September

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