Virginia Heyer

Professional services group, AZ NGA, has acquired Sydney-based financial planning firm, StrategyOne Advice Network (StrategyOne), continuing the group’s record of partnering with mature, high quality advisory businesses.

Established in 1984, StrategyOne is led by Managing Director, Virginia Heyer, and Senior Private Client Adviser, Duncan Derrington.

The firm specialises in wealth management, retirement planning and risk advice, and has four advisers, eight support staff and around 600 clients.

Alongside Heyer, StrategyOne has an impressive pedigree of founders including financial advice pioneers Venn O’Neil, Linda Hogan, and Linda’s husband Peter Hogan, formerly Head of Technical at the SMSF Association.

Chesne Stafford, AZ NGA Executive General Manager, said: “StrategyOne has a strong reputation for excellent service and advice, and a team of a dedicated, capable professionals”.

“When we do a deal, we don’t just look at individual businesses in isolation but rather how they fit into our broader community. We consider things like values, complementary services and potential opportunities to collaborate,” she said.

“We believe there are a lot of synergies with StrategyOne and we’re excited to work together.”

Heyer said the AZ NGA partnership secured the firm’s ongoing success by adding scale and enabling it to invest in the next generation.

“It is getting harder and more costly for advice SMEs to operate effectively so we sought a large, experienced partner to help future proof our business and ensure a sustainable future,” Heyer said.

“StrategyOne has been around for 40 years and we want to be around for another 40 years to take care of our people and clients. We had a good look around at our options and AZ NGA is the right fit. We’ve been thoroughly impressed by the team and we’re excited about the group’s proposition and plans for the future.”

AZ NGA’s latest acquisition follows the group’s recent strategic alliance with AMP and advice business services group, Entireti, to create a compelling offer for AMP’s financial advisers.

“We have the capacity, capability and capital to do transactions of all shapes and sizes and we’re able to innovate to satisfy the needs of different stakeholders,” Stafford said.

“While our recent focus has been on large deals, we’re always looking to partner with quality accounting and advisory SMEs to help grow their business, drive efficiencies and capture opportunities.”

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Virginia Heyer

Count Financial Limited (Count Financial) has announced the appointment of StrategyOne Advice Network Pty Ltd (StrategyOne) as the latest firm to join its national advice network.

The appointment continues the CountPlus-owned licensee’s growth strategy, having already appointed 16 new firms since the start of 2021.

StrategyOne are based in northern Sydney and were previously part of the Fitzpatricks network before moving to Count Financial. They have a team of nine, which includes three financial advisers who specialise in strategic financial advice to help clients build and protect their wealth.

Speaking about their reasons for partnering with Count Financial, Virginia Heyer, Managing Director at StrategyOne, said the clean licensee model and commitment to the future of advice were key factors in their decision.

“The fact that Count Financial is not owned by a retail product manufacturer is important, because we wanted to work with a licensee partner that has client best interest at the forefront, rather than product distribution. Given that we also have a Professional Year (PY) candidate in our firm, Count Financial’s well-structured PY framework supports new entrants to the industry and will help us immensely.”

Andrew Kennedy, Chief Advice Officer at Count Financial, said that StrategyOne are a quality firm who are an excellent cultural fit for the network.

“Virginia and the team at StrategyOne are a fantastic addition to our community. We have a strong family feel within our adviser network, and I have no doubt that the StrategyOne team will fit in well and bring tremendous knowledge to the rest of our Membership, given our ‘best practice sharing’ ethos.”

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