Non-aligned financial planning group Synchron has announced the first of a number of senior appointments as part of succession plans for its directors and to maintain the group’s culture into the future.
As part of these moves Synchron has appointed Michael Jones, former Director, Transitions and Advisory Compliance at UBS Wealth Management as Compliance Manager working alongside Synchron, Director, John Prossor.
Fellow director, Don Trapnell said the appointment would provide additional resources to Prossor’s role of overseeing compliance within the group.
He added the appointment of Jones and others in the near future was part of the ‘planned obsolescence’ of the current directors, flagging his own potential retirement in the next few years.
“Synchron is what it is because of the directors and their view of the world and the responsibility they take for that view and the group. With Michael starting this week we pass on that ethos and the way we do business,” Trapnell said.
“In two years we may appoint a general manager as well and I can wind down my involvement…”
“In two years we may appoint a general manager as well and I can wind down my involvement, possibly moving into a non-executive director role, while passing on the ethos and responsibility for the business.”
He said this idea of a certain ethos and responsibility within Synchron was behind its ongoing efforts to fight a payroll tax assessment by the State Revenue Office of Victoria, which was recently ruled in favour of Synchron after five years of legal action, costing more than $500,000.
“We felt we had a greater responsibility to the industry, and we took the moral high ground, because we could – we had the size and the status to take that position,” Trapnell said.
While Synchron currently has 400 authorised representative providing personal financial advice and is the third largest risk insurance advice business in Australia according to Trapnell, he said plans were in place to add another 100 advisers within two to three years.
He said the group aimed to be second in risk advice in Australia and with the addition of extra advisers would move the business mix to an even split between financial advice and financial planning, away from risk advice which currently accounts for 60% of the group’s business.
