Matt Englund

Securitor has been ranked by advisers as the best dealer group in the financial planning industry, according to research published by Investment Trends 2013 Planner Business Model Report.

Measured by Net Promoter Score or NPS, Securitor has the highest level of advocacy from its planners with an NPS of +49%. This is based on the level of support, flexibility and proactivity advisers believe they are receiving from Securitor.

A high NPS indicates advisers have a high regard for their dealer group as well as high satisfaction levels with the services they are being provided.

“This is a great result for our advisers we support and for their clients,” says Mr Matt Englund, Managing Director of Securitor and Licensee Select.

“Our number one focus is to support advisers and help them deliver the best solutions for their clients. It is terrific that planners believe we are helping them achieve this.”

Investment Trends conducted the research from April to May this year. The research included 1141 surveys completed by financial advisers, RG 146 compliant accountants and dealer group managers who give advice.

Advisers were asked for their feedback on a number of topics including dealer group’s support on software and processes, business development, new clients, staff and client retention, research and IT.

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Matt Englund – Managing Director – Securitor

Securitor has launched a social media capability for advisers across Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, providing advisers with another tool to help engage with their clients and their community.

This highly tailored social media offering helps advisers use social media effectively, as well as to drive new opportunities for growth.

It also assists in the provision of content to help support the delivery of ongoing service to clients.

Securitor managing director Mr Matt Englund says Securitor’s social media strategy has been built with the deliberate goal of bringing its value proposition to life.

“Our business is built on the value of community, connecting a community of like-minded professionals. For Securitor, social media is about cementing our adviser relationships, expanding our community of influence, and encouraging transparency by demonstrating the value of advice.”

Securitor’s social media solution has a clear strategy with a focus on sustainability. For this reason it was developed in house using industry expertise of clients needs while leveraging the scale and resources of BT Financial Group to implement.

“I think many advisers have been wondering about social media and wanting to get involved, but have not known how,” says Mr Englund. “This has led to an ad hoc approach by both dealer groups and practices.”

Securitor’s social media approach addresses these issues through social media training which involves webinars and masterclasses as well as policies and etiquette guides so advisers can implement a social media strategy for their own businesses.

This launch follows a redesign of Securitor’s website and the launch last month of its ‘Facts and Figures’ app to provide advisers with up-to-date information for client meetings and to facilitate better client conversations.

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The tools are two of several initiatives rolled out by Securitor this year to give its advisers an even stronger and better-resourced offer.

The first tool helps advice businesses budget and project the results they want to achieve in their business and monitor how they are tracking against these targets.

According to Securitor’s Managing Director Matt Englund, in a tough market planners are looking for market-leading services tools and support that will help them achieve their business potential and the best results for clients.

“Advisers are telling us they want to step it up, and that with our help in developing the right services, tools and programs, we are helping them do this.”

He adds: “They know, with our experience and reliability, we can deliver them what they need. They trust us to listen to their needs and respond.”

Feedback from business leaders and advisers about the tool highlights better decision making and staff engagement, as well as richer information to use when engaging with financiers.

“All the business productivity surveys point to a direct correlation between managing the financials of a business and achieving success. This tool helps advisers bridge that gap,” says Mr Englund.

In another initiative, Securitor has partnered with industry consultant Bstar to provide advisers with a comprehensive business valuation methodology. This gives business owners in-depth insights around their service delivery, client propositions and profitability.

Mr Englund says by working closely with their Practice Development Manager, advisers can implement an action plan on how to increase the value of their business, further maximising the benefits of both of the above initiatives.

“This program is about taking control,” says Mr Englund. “By using metrics, and having business leaders coached, they are more empowered to achieve business success.”

These initiatives follow the release of two very successful programs launched earlier this year. The first was a pricing program to help businesses more accurately assess the value of their advice and ensure they price fairly for it. The second was the Accountants Offer released in June for accountants looking to provide advice in the new regulatory landscape. This offer encompasses a comprehensive education program to support accountants wanting to enter the financial planning arena.

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At least that’s what you might conclude if you happened upon any article on the Future of Financial Advice Reform legislation. Scan the headlines and it’s rare to find positive commentary much less commentary which tells the story of what’s really happening out there ‘in the trenches’ as licensees and advisers prepare for a FoFA future.

In our first article on FoFA readiness we spoke with small to medium licensees and in this our second in our mini-series on FoFA readiness, we hear from two very large licensees about how they’re readying their representatives for a fully disclosed, clients come first, world.  Ray Griffin spoke with AMP’s Steve Helmich and Securitor’s Adrian De Silva about the FoFA preparedness of their organisations.

With around 460 representatives Securitor, like any large licensee, is charged with getting big numbers of advisers ready for what stills remains an uncertain ‘final cut’ of the legislation which is yet to pass through the Senate.

“We took the view that we needed to run a ‘Pricing Advice Program’ for our advisers which gets them to understand, very clearly, the cost of providing service. While advisers do an amazing amount of good work they don’t always articulate it well the client.”

National Manager, Distribution Adrian De Silva pointed out. “So to date we’ve taken 81 practices through a very intense two day workshop to get them to understand the actual cost to serve and for some you can see the ‘light bulb’ go on with the realisation they’ve been significantly undervaluing their services.”

De Silva says the feedback has been tremendous. “We’ve got advisers saying things like: ‘We now better value who we are and what we do for clients and some are saying that they’re getting better staff ‘buy-in’ and stronger advocacy of the firm by staff.”

Securitor has insisted that the workshop be a ‘whole of firm’ process – not just advisers.  “You need to be sure everyone is on the same page because that’s what creates efficiency.”

Adrian De Silva points out that it has given advisers the confidence to differentiate the various services they provide and how those services should be billed.  On first glance at least, it seems Securitor’s FoFA readiness is paying off with revenue increases of around 54% and 64% average increases of post workshop fees for initial and ongoing advice respectively.

With around 1200 representatives across Australia AMP has been planning for a FoFA type environment since 2009. Director of Financial Planning, Advice and Services, Steve Helmich notes: “We always try to look ahead and predict what’s happening with consumers and in 2009 we felt we had a real opportunity to take a leadership position in the financial planning profession by moving all our financial planners to fee based advice. And so we made the decision that from 1 July 2010 we would only deal with new financial planning clients on a fee basis with the only exceptions being risk cover and mortgages.”

With reference to the possible so-called ‘opt-in’ outcomes of FoFA, Helmich points out that clients are at liberty to ‘turn off the advice fee at any time. “The power is in the hands of the consumer.”

The uncertainty of the final version of FoFA remains a concern for the two licensees. With the Bill having passed through the lower house its passage through the Senate remains unclear. Into that mix sits the clearly stated view of the opposition FoFA spokesman, Mathias Cormann, that he remains unhappy with the Bill and would look to make significant changes to it should there be a change of government. The opposition appears to hold strong views against the Opt-In aspects of FoFA.  However, while AMP and Securitor both readily admit that knowing exactly what FoFA will eventually dictate is difficult, they nevertheless seem to be getting on with business despite the uncertainty.

AMP’s Helmich noted: “We don’t know what the final form will be – because there’s uncertainty around ‘the Code’ it’s difficult to speculate on that.  But what I would say is we know what the FPA’s Code is now and we’re very well aligned to it. So we will look at the situation and understand what comes out of the Code [of Practice] and then make our decisions around that.  We’re very consumer focused and we want the clients of our planners to understand what they’re paying for.”   Steve Helmich also noted that AMP representatives receive no remuneration incentives for recommending AMP products. “They get no extra kudos for using AMP over Asgard or BT over AMP – or whatever it is – they will pick the products with which the clients are most comfortable and which also suits the clients’ needs.” He also points out that AMP products do not pay commission to any advisers regardless of their licensee.

De Silva claims that resultant of the Securitor’s advice pricing workshops and 12 week coaching program post the workshop, their advisers are not as concerned about FoFA because they are better prepared for some of the key elements. “We’ve gone to our advisers and discussed the potential FoFA impacts on their businesses and overlaid their current situations with FoFA requirements so they can see the financial impact on revenue.” Securitor then digs deeper via a 24 question survey which focuses on their advisers’ ongoing fee obligations; their ‘best interest’ obligations and their conflicted remuneration. “Then we prepare them for the potential ‘hot spots’ when the legislation eventually comes out so they can say: ‘My business is FoFA proof’” Adrian De Silva notes.

Both AMP and Securitor are going to be impacted to some extent by the conflicts of remuneration components of FoFA.  However, Steve Helmich believes AMP advisers will be able to accommodate the requirements. “We always make sure we disclose any interests or potential conflicts of interest on each and every bit of advice we give which unfortunately this makes advice documents a bit longer than they should be but we do want people to understand [the interests and conflicts]. But the truth is people are dealing with an AMP financial planner and there is some expectation that they may get an AMP product as part of the solutions for their advice.”  Securitor’s De Silva seems to sum it up when he states: “At the end of the day ’best interest’ is always what good financial planning has been about.”

A common thread has interwoven the comments made by all the licensees we interviewed for these articles and that is the need for their advisers to be able to articulate the advice Value Proposition to both new and existing clients. It’s no surprise that it all comes down to what do clients receive in return for the fees they pay and do clients see it as value for money?  My observation has been that even before FoFA, well run financial advice businesses from both the large and small licensee settings were already operating in a quasi FoFA format.  Best Interests, full disclosure of any conflicts and costs were key differentiators in such businesses.  In a post FoFA world the rest of the Australian financial advice scene is being brought up to that standard and that’s a very good thing for all stakeholders.

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The key information that advisers will be able to access includes:

• equity research via eQR Securities
• annual capital markets view
• detailed and summarised quarterly capital market updates
• monthly economic/market updates
• periodic thematic papers
• sector papers
• detailed monthly product commentary that supports the Securitor Select List
• model portfolio information and reporting
• approved product lists
• podcasts
• calendar of market events

While the site is targeted to meet the investment and product needs of advisers, selected information from the site can also be provided to clients to assist them with client education and information delivery.

“We are in a dynamic operating environment – advisers need access to timely high-quality research to meet the needs of clients. Investors are closely tuned to market fluctuations and as a result are playing a more active role in their portfolios. Advisers need insightful commentary at their fingertips – this site has been designed to meet the needs of our aligned practices and their clients,” said Matt Englund, head of dealer groups at BT Financial Group.

The site provides access to eQR Securities which combines the strengths of over 200 professionals including economists, strategists, portfolio managers and analysts across BT Financial Group’s internal and external network and strategic research partnerships. eQR research provides access to research on over 200 securities across the S&P/ASX200 index.

Piers Bolger, head of research and strategy at BT Financial Group who has responsibility for delivering this service to Securitor practices said, “The way we provide research material and share insights has evolved since the GFC. Now there is a bigger appetite for in-depth market and product information to assist advisers in their discussions with clients.

Being able to deliver a research service that is easily accessible and provides a constant information flow to advisers, highlights that Securitor continues to build on its value proposition to advisers”, he added.

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AFA CEO Richard Klipin said the AFA is delighted to welcome Securitor on board. “We have great pleasure in welcoming a licensee of the calibre of Securitor to the AFA and look forward to working with them.”

BT Financial Group Head of Dealer Groups, Matt Englund said the decision to join the AFA was based on the group’s ongoing commitment to supporting the financial planning industry and its professionalism. 

“All of our authorised representatives must be members of a professional association,” Mr Englund said. “We want to provide Securitor practices with access to professional industry associations that can represent their interests. We have been impressed by the quality of the AFA’s membership program, their commitment to the industry and their passion for representing advisers.”

Mr Klipin said, “It is part of our ongoing strategy to welcome more licensees to the AFA so that the voice of advisers is heard more distinctly and more strongly in our communities and in Canberra.” 

Mr Klipin said the AFA has experienced 26 per cent membership growth over the calendar year, a fact he attributes to the AFA’s strong ethos and adviser focus.

“Given all that is happening around the Future of Financial Advice reforms, recruiting more licensees to the AFA is part of the ongoing mission. It has never been more important to ensure that the voice of advisers is heard in our communities and in Canberra. The more voices we have, the louder our concerns will be heard.”

The AFA now represents more 7000 advisers through its relationships with licensees across Australia and individual members.

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