Another advice brand is set to leave the Australian market, following an announcement by the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) that it will close Whittaker Macnaught in June.
CBA, which acquired the Queensland-based advice group in 2008 as part of its purchase of BankWest, said it had decided to close Whittaker Macnaught following “an extensive review of its operations”. According to CBA’s Wealth Management Advice business, the review extended across all its licensee businesses, which include Financial Wisdom, Count Financial and Commonwealth Financial Planning.
The primary reason behind the closure, said Pauline McFarlane, Head of Specialist Licensees for CBA Wealth Management Advice, was because the group was operating under its own Australian Financial Services License (AFSL).
“When this model was viewed in the context of all of CBA Wealth Management Advice Licensees, it was clear this was not the most commercially viable way to deliver quality advice to Whittaker Macnaught customers in the long term,” Ms McFarlane said.
“The review determined that it makes better commercial sense for us to move our existing customers from this licence, to practices authorised under the Financial Wisdom AFSL,” she added.
There are currently 28 advisers within the Whittaker Macnaught group, serving nearly 10,000 clients. With the Whittaker Macnaught license to be cancelled on 30 June 2013, these existing advisers have just two months to either transition to the Financial Wisdom AFSL, or elect to pass on their customers to an existing Financial Wisdom practice.
