CompaniesApr 7 2015

Foster Denovo ‘actively seeking’ advice partnerships

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Foster Denovo ‘actively seeking’ advice partnerships

After signing a pension advice referral deal with Friends Life last week, Foster Denovo’s chief executive has confirmed it is actively seeking further partnerships in the near future.

Speaking to FTAdviser, Roger Brosch did not rise to speculation around Sesame seeking a partner to take on its wealth management appointed representatives, stating that there was nothing he could announce right now.

He did however, state that Foster Denevo’s business has invested heavily in its private client proposition recently, to the point where it is scalable enough to take on partnerships like that done with Friends Life to provide online and phone-based advice to customers.

“We are actively seeking similar deals and I believe we will have some announcements to make later on this year,” Mr Brosch teased.

In September last year, Foster Denovo revealed that profits were down more than 80 per cent in 2013, primarily as a result of substantial investment activities.

The firm said this reflected “significant investments” across the group and “increased provisions” in its financial advisory business, although it expected some of this to be “reversed in future periods”.

Mr Brosch explained that the investment in technology has been based on a belief that the firm must adapt to changing demand, as over the next few years people will want advice to be supplied through a variety of different channels.

“There will always be a place for face to face advice, but we think there will me more and more demand for phone, Skype and voice recorded services.

“We now have a scalable advice proposition, so unlike some of competitors, we are able to offer these kinds of services to those that need them.”

As for what might happen from 6 April, he admitted the outlook was uncertain at the moment, but added that he thought the message was getting through and it was only likely to create more “savvy” investors.

peter.walker@ft.com