NZFP cuts AMP connection; Two jump ship

New Zealand Financial Planning, whose roots go right back to the start of financial planning in this country, is splitting with the bulk of the firm cutting its ties with AMP.

Wednesday, 16 April 2014

by Susan Edmunds

NZ Financial Planning has between $260 million and $300 million of funds under management that sit on the former AXA-owned platform, Assure.  That does not include funds under advisement - investments held directly by the client but upon which NZ Financial Planning advisers offer advice.

The company has been tied into Assure for many years, however that agreement is coming to an end and a decision has been made to establish a new platform and exit Assure, which is now owned by AMP.

Good Returns understands there have been some concerns about the future of Assure and whether the service would be maintained to meet agreed service standards.
Instead NZFP is contracting one of its former advisers, Mark Wooster, to build a new platform.

General manager Craig Dealey would not discuss the details until the legal side of any change was sorted but he expected to be able to have a new disclosure document available by the end of the week.

NZFP's roots go right but to IPD Securities which was one of the first professional advisory firms in New Zealand. It has 17 advisers in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin and includes highly-experienced advisers such as Jordi Garcia, Neville Caird and Alan Lawton.

Dealey said the firm’s role was to actively manage its investment management services and the providers of them. “Sometimes we make big changes, sometimes they’re small. Any changes are with the client in mind. We’re in the process of a fairly significant review right now and we will be communicating to the public and any prospective and current clients developments as they unfold.”

Not all NZFP’s advisers are moving. Two advisers, Greg Moyle and Paul Harvey, have established a new company, Financial Planning New Zealand, and are sticking with AMP.

These two advisers account for about one third of NZFP’s funds under management.

Moyle said 90% of the clients had moved to the new company. He says he will continue to use an AMP platform and said it was business as usual.

Moyle said: “They’re going in a different direction to me. I’ve decided to stay true to what I believe is important.”

He said he made the decision to leave in February and did so at the end of March.

Moyle has been in the news over recent weeks after a High Court judge criticised his handling of the investments of an estate. He told clients that his move from New Zealand Financial Planning was nothing to do with the court decision but was part of the NZ Financial Planning restructuring.

Good Returns understand AMP is also in the running to buy another financial planning firm.

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