by David Chaplin
Spicers has retained five former Gould Wealth Management (GWM) advisers to work under its banner, defraying the net loss of seven financial planners who left the firm recently following a restructure.
When AXA bought GWM in March this year almost a dozen advisers were listed on its books, down from the 18 named when Gould took control of the former MFS-owned advisory firm Vestar in July last year. In the March 2008 Vestar information memorandum, MFS claimed 28 advisers operated under its brand.
While the number of Spicers advisers has shrunk considerably, the firm's boss, Gordon Noble-Campbell said the group was in "ongoing" negotiations with former GWM clients to transfer their assets to new portfolios run by the AXA-owned advisory firm.
"I'm very pleased with the progress," Noble-Campbell said. "We've spoken to a large proportion [of the GWM client base] and the Spicers offer has been favourably received."
At the time of AXA's takeover of Gould, it is understood GWM had secured about 1,600 former Vestar clients and almost $330 million in funds under management, although about 25% of this was believed to invested in impaired assets. According to Noble-Campbell, Spicers funds under advice has grown over 2009 to top $1.7 billion, excluding any GWM client transfers.
The former GWM advisers - Briar Burke, Emma Marks, Craig Simmons, Doug Davidson and Fred Noyce - have signed contracts with Spicers, which now operates under a more unified system.
Noble-Campbell said the decision to ditch Spicers 'finder/minder' model, where some advisers focused on winning new clients while others mainly serviced existing clients, had resulted in a net total of seven financial planners leaving the group.
"We decided all our advisers need to be delivering the best possible experience to all clients and all of them need ongoing relationships with clients," Noble-Campbell said.
The 'finder/minder' approach was launched about three years ago under former Spicers head, Patrick Middleton.
Noble-Campbell said 43 advisers now operate under the Spicers brand.
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