AFS licensee, Fortnum Private Wealth and AZ NGA-owned advisory firm, Nestworth Financial Strategists have teamed up to acquire Australian Unity’s Financial Advice business and forge an ongoing tripartite alliance.
A statement from the companies says that as part of the deal, Nestworth, which is a corporate authorised representative of Fortnum, will acquire Australian Unity’s employed advice business consisting of 18 employee financial advisers. It will also acquire the group’s corporate superannuation services business.
Nestworth will also become one of Australian Unity’s preferred advice providers.
Concurrently, Fortnum will purchase Australian Unity’s financial advice AFSL holder Australian Unity Personal Financial Services Ltd (PFS) and, through this entity, continue to provide licensing and business support to PFS’s 150 self-employed advisers.
Neil Younger, CEO at Fortnum, says the deal will deliver immediate scale and synergy benefits, increasing the combined number of advisers across two AFS licences to circa 400.
“Scale is increasingly important because it enables licensees to offer a broader range of solutions and better support underlying businesses, but we’re not interested in growth for the sake of it. We only want to partner with high quality people and businesses, and there is a lot of alignment between Fortnum and Australian Unity’s PFS business in terms of culture, values and operating model.”
Paul Fog, CEO at Nestworth, says this is “… an exciting alliance that increases our capability and capacity to help more people to develop and implement a solid financial strategy.”
Supporting Advisers to Grow and Thrive
Esther Kerr, CEO, Wealth & Capital Markets at Australian Unity, reaffirmed the group’s commitment to supporting advisers to grow and thrive in the changing advice landscape.
“This is about the next phase of growth for an advice business we’ve built over 20 years. It will help more Australians in future to access high quality, affordable advice that benefits them, and the strategic alliance and preferred provider relationship means members and staff will enjoy access to this growing advice network.”
She says they have chosen Fortnum and AZ NGA’s Nestworth “…because of their strong leadership teams, unwavering focus on client best interest, and commitment to investing in personal advice for the long-term.”
Paul Barrett, AZ NGA CEO, says the deal reflects his firm’s willingness and ability to support advisory firms to capture opportunities to grow their business and execute their strategy.
“Paul Fog and his leadership team run a very successful business and they have deep experience in managing large advice teams and delivering consistently excellent holistic advice,” he says.
Established in 2002, Australian Unity Advice supports approximately 31,000 clients across both the employed and self-employed advice channels.
The transaction is expected to be completed by December 1, 2023.
