Changing of the guard

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Friday, August 29th 2008, 9:41AM

by Philip Macalister

Over the years there have been two firms, in my mind, that have been true innovators in the financial services industry and who have comfortably travelled below the radar. Indeed these two firms have been the ones their competitors have tried to find out about, but generally failed. (We have had similar experiences too). The two, NZ Funds Management and Grosvenor, have taken similar approaches over the years and have successfully shrouded themselves in secrecy. But things are changing a little. Grosvenor has launched its dealer group Camelot which, in some ways, is similar to NZ Funds’ Lodestar group. The difference is that Camelot/Grosvenor is opening up. Indeed the next issue of ASSET has a great profile on Grosvenor head Allan Yeo. Meanwhile, NZ Funds/Lodestar is becoming even more reclusive than usual, recently refusing to take part in any industry survey. Whether it is ASSET's survey of planning groups, or Mercer's wholesale funds survey. My views on this are clear. I accept private companies have the right to keep to themselves, but on the other hand I think that people in the business of looking after other people’s money should be a bit more open about what they do and how they operate. This secrecy isn’t restricted to these guys. Yesterday we sought more information from AMP on its results, however, like with the previous result, it declined to make anyone available. This is in marked contrast to other firms like AXA. One thing is clear though, and that is the shape of the advisory industry is changing quite quickly (considering it has kept its same form for so long). For years Money Managers and Spicers were the two big brand firms dominating the market with a bunch of second-tier players such as Broadbase and Vestar in the next group. Now there are some challengers to the big space with Camelot and PIS having aspirations of being the biggest. (One can’t forget that players like Westpac and AMP continue to be significant). Then this second-tier group is nearly disappearing and maybe, as some have suggested previously, won’t exist in the future. Maybe the future shape of the industry is a clutch of big corporate firms and a raft of smaller, independent advisers. If this happens, it suggests that many advisers, over the next couple of years, will end up with different firms.

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