Succession Wealth advisers will be ‘dual-listed’
Succession tells FTAdviser that it is changing its “entire business model” and its advisers will be ‘dual-listed’ to work on both restricted and independent entities.
Advisers will be ‘dual-listed’ to work for both the restricted and independent entities of Succession Advisory Services’ new venture, Succession Wealth Management, Simon Chamberlain, company chief executive, said.
In an interview with FTAdviser, Mr Chamberlain explained that his latest venture, Succession Wealth Management, will be formed of two entities that will offer independent and restricted advice respectively.
While investment-arm Succession Wealth Management will be independent, restricted advisory proposition Succession Financial Management will focus on protection and other premium-type businesses.
The new business will be formed from the acquisition of five businesses this year. The member firms are London and Amersham-based Smart Wealth; CDFS based in Glasgow; The Financial Management Group in Amersham; Westminster Financial Planning based in London and Plymouth-based Westpoint Financial Consultants.
Although the five firms currently have their change of control forms in with the Financial Services Authority, Mr Chamberlain expects this to be awarded next month.
He said: “I was going to have two restricted models but now we are moving away from that as we now have greater clarification and understanding of the RDR rules.
“We will have an investment-only business that will be independent as well as a more transactional business that will be restricted. And the advisers will be dual-listed for both of these firms.”
Succession Financial Management is a restricted proposition because “all protection policies are done through around eight or nine companies so we might as well formalise that relationship to get the best deals for the client as possible by giving those companies scale”.
Mr Chamberlain said: “And protection has never been a whole of market product. Clients want to know how much they are covered for, what’s the premium and is it a big enough company to pay out. It’s not a case of looking at 600 different firms.”
Mr Chamberlain believes that many firms have misunderstood what the term restricted means, emphasising that it doesn’t mean multi-tied and tied.
He said: “Restricted means that the process you have to follow with your client on the investment business is exactly the same as if you were completely independent. The difference is that if you are restricted you will have to turn down more clients. So I would do the same fact-find, same market analysis. The difference is, if I am restricted, I may say to a client that I don’t have any of the products that I know you need.
“The restricted tag from the FSA isn’t that you don’t give a client the full advice but you restrict your product selection after the advice has been given. Restricted means you will turn more clients down and I don’t want our advisers in that position.”
The group hopes to announce in June that the change of control has been granted to the five firms by the regulator.