Old Mutual Wealth’s chief distribution officer has said the provider’s advice network will probably grow at a slower rate moving forward with more focus given to its private client business.
Richard Freeman told FTAdviser the company still plans to grow but will shift its focus, onto those advisers who operate in a “half-way house” between being an IFA and being part of a restricted network.
He said: “We want to grow in all areas but in a controlled way.
“Yes, we want to grow our network but probably not at the pace we have done over the last five or 10 years.
“We have got a really good relationship with the IFA community but there is still a swathe of people who want to operate in a half-way house.
“We want to play in all the spaces that are good for our advisers and clients. Probably in private client advisers that has been longer to get up and running and we probably need to push on with that.”
Old Mutual Wealth Private Client Advisers was launched towards the end of last year to build a national advice offering.
Last month the company bought Devon-based financial planning firm DQS Financial Management, adding an extra £200m in assets under advice.
Last year Intrinsic took on 150 firms from Sesame when it closed its wealth advice network following a strategic review.
At the time John Cowan, executive chairman of Sesame Bankhall Group, said the days of networks “playing the numbers game” was over.
Mr Freeman said he agreed with Mr Cowan but said he still believed companies cannot shrink and achieve greatness.
He said: “We say for the long-term future we would like to be known as an advice brand.
“The Intrinsic brand is business-to-business and at some point we will ask whether we will rebrand Intrinsic but that’s three or four years away. We are doing some planning in the background.
“We think there are about 1,100 businesses out there that fit our criteria and the criteria of other companies looking to buy.
“We are not going to buy 1,000 firms, we will probably grow by 250 advisers in the next five years.
“It is great for the advisers that there is so much competition.”
Simon Torry, a chartered financial planner with Essex-based SRC Wealth Management, said: “It is positive news that there are companies out there which see growth in the private client business.
“I have been approached a few times over the last year or so about whether we would be interested in selling.”
