Dealer Group Movements

0

New licensee, Next Generation Advisory has made its second acquisition, and risk specialist dealer group, Bombora, has welcomed two more practices to its network.

Pride Advice CEO, Brett Schatto
Pride Advice CEO, Brett Schatto

Paul Barrett’s Next Generation Advisory group has acquired a 51% underlying stake in Adelaide-based firm, Pride Advice. Pride is a holistic advice firm, providing a range of services including investment, retirement planning, insurance and strategic financial planning advice. The firm employs nine staff and services over 1,700 clients.

Mr Barrett said: “Pride Advice is a leading professional financial planning firm as well as a very fast growing business. Brett [Schatto] is a pioneer in modern professional financial planning and we are thrilled to have Pride in our stable of firms.”

Pride CEO, Brett Schatto, will continue to lead the business, and has been appointed to the Board of Next Generation Advisory. Mr Schatto, who is a member of the Beddoes Institute Most Trusted Adviser Network, said his firm was delighted to be involved with such an exciting project.

“We are looking forward to working Next Generation Advisory in continuing to deliver great results for our clients. The uniqueness of the Next Generation Advisory succession solution and its open architecture approach in relation to platform use and licensee choice are very appealing to our clients and staff alike. It allows us to grow confidently into the future whilst always keeping our clients’ best interest at the forefront of everything we do,” Mr Schatto said.

In May this year Next Generation Advisory announced its first advice partnership, joining with ex-Financial Wisdom practice, Eureka Whittaker Macnaught.

Bombora Advice Founder, Wayne Handley
Bombora Advice Founder, Wayne Handley

In other dealer group news, Bombora Advice has increased its adviser strength, adding two Victorian practices to its network.

GL Financial Planning, led by Shane Coutts, and Prom Country Financial Planning, headed up by Rory MacKenzie, have announced they will join the risk-focused licensee. GL Financial Planning was established in 2002, and is headquartered in Geelong. Prom Country Financial Planning was created by Mr MacKenzie in 2003, and grew substantially in 2008 following the acquisition of another advice practice.

Commenting on the announcement, Bombora Managing Director, Wayne Handley, said that the advice group’s non-aligned model and marketplace offering dedicated to the specific needs of risk professionals were the underlying factors attracting advisers and enquiries.

“Advisers’ who want highly successful and sustainable business models for the future, are in search of a partner with a quality brand, sound strategies and are completely aligned to their business model – it just makes sense when we are all talking the same language – are on the same page and heading in the same direction,” Mr Handley said.

“For dedicated risk specialists, Bombora unquestionably ticks these boxes.”

Both Mr Coutts and Mr MacKenzie said they were excited about the move and adamant that the future of their respective practices and client service models would benefit immensely from their association with a dedicated risk specialist dealer group.

“Bombora is such a unique organisation and industry brand that has developed an exceptionally strong marketplace reputation in a relatively short period of time. Joining as equity partners has given us the opportunity to contribute to the strategic direction of the business whilst working alongside a professional team of practitioners in a supportive compliant administrative infrastructure,” they said in a joint statement.

Mr Handley said he expected to announce further appointments to the Bombora network in the coming month.

“The future is about professional service firms – we are not a dealer, we are an advice business. The objective is to build the business brand and organisation by partnering risk specialists and developing long term productive relationships based on ‘sharing value’,” he said.