AAA grows as AXA retired

AAA Advisers Association chief executive Wayne Smith said the group had reached agreements with three business partners late last year, with the possibility of a fourth partnership being signed later this year.

He declined to name the providers but said the partnerships were the first the AAA had developed outside of AMP/Axa, which the group reached an agreement with last year.

Smith said exact details of the business partnerships would differ depending on the company but they would offer a “raft of benefits” to AAA members including access to product training.

“There’s also commission structure. The probability is that an association like us can negotiate slightly better commission structure than the individual knocking on the door of the company,” he said.

“And with the aging adviser population there might be companies that are prepared to look at arrangements or specific agreements for allowing people to exit in terms of buying the book.

AMP is doing away with the Axa brand at the end of March and Smith said Axa’s demise vindicated the decision of the AAA to branch out and work with other providers, which had been a “pretty significant strategic change” in the last three or four years.

He said the regulatory regime for advisers, that requires them to act in the best interests of clients, had made it more important for advisers to work with a number of providers rather than just one.

“The decision to look at diversifying the number of companies we deal with has proved to be very wise,” he said.

“There are probably one or two other adviser associations who would quite like to be in our position right now.”

And although the AAA isn’t planning any mergers with other adviser groups, Smith said the 250-member organisation would keep an eye out.

“That’s obviously an issue we are thinking about. There are some groups out there that I suspect will be looking for a home in the future.”

Comments from our readers

On 22 February 2013 at 2:30 pm John Milner said:

This new concept of "acting in the best interests of clients" sounds like a great idea - this could really catch on. What a shame it took regulation for some to see this.

On 24 February 2013 at 12:43 pm Bazza said:

Starter for 10... Is the 'New' AAA

A) An Advisers Association?
B) An Aggregator?
C) A Dealership?
or E) Lost in the middle somewhere?

Though good to see that they have got the providers to provide product training, as that is so hard to come by these days.

Come on guy's lift your game, you have been threatening commission aggregation for four or five years now and times have changed, providers don't want more aggregation they want a quality advice network...ah hang on excuse the pun.

AAA grows as AXA retired

As the AXA brand heads towards its retirement, the group that was formerly the AXA Advisers Association is about to unveil a number of business partnerships with product providers.

Friday, February 22nd 2013, 1:00PM 2 Comments

Comments from our readers

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