BT Financial Group (BTFG) will separate advice staff who provide online, phone based or general advice from those who provide face to face advice in a move which confirms it will not be replacing its outgoing General Manager for financial advice.
Under the changes, the current client advice facing business within BTFG will be moved into a new created Advice & Private Wealth division which will be headed by the current General Manager, Private Wealth, Jane Watts.
All other advice staff, including those that provide digital and phone based general advice will move into the customer service teams within the Chief Operating Office which will continue to be led by Andrew Walker.
The move follows the announcement in August 2017 that BTFG General Manager, Advice, Mark Spiers had resigned from the role but will stay on in an advisory role as Director, Wealth Development supporting BTFG’s wider advice strategy.
BTFG Chief Executive, Brad Cooper said the changes are a result of the shifts in how consumers want to access financial advice and BTFG was ‘repointing’ its advice businesses and matching them with the expertise that existed in the broader BT business.
Cooper said Watts had already delivered strong results with BT Private Wealth recognised as the leading private banking business while Walker had driven the digital transformation of the digital and phone based advice business.
