Prudential has revealed bold ambitions for its fast-growing financial planning division, as it moves further into the fray of providers looking to muscle in on the advice market.
On 26 June the company announced it had hired Peter Coleman from Lifesearch to spearhead the growth strategy of its restricted advice business Prudential Financial Planning.
At the time Prudential stated Mr Coleman would help secure PFP’s position as “one of the UK’s leading advisory firms”.
In a statement on its plans, Prudential revealed it will look to hire advisers rather than grow its advice service through acquisition like rivals Standard Life and Old Mutual Wealth, which are both expanding further into restricted advice.
Behind the scenes, Prudential has grown its financial planning division steadily in the last few years, bringing it from a small team of around 25 to its current 300-strong force.
“We are a fast-growing business with ambitions to secure a leading position in the advice market and our current plans are to grow by hiring salaried advisers," the company stated.
“The recruitment of Peter Coleman, who joins PFP’s executive management team as financial planning and strategy director, underlines our ambitions.
“From its inception in 2012, Prudential Financial Planning is now a one of the larger UK advisory businesses with more than 300 partners.
"At this stage we would want to continue our current trajectory of growing by 50 to 70 advisers each year."
The statement added that PFP has been “central” to the sales growth achieved by the company in 2016.
Prudential reported UK life retail sales of £1.1bn, up 33 per cent, for last year, with PruFund sales up 52 per cent to £873m.
A spokesman for the life company told FTAdviser: “Our plans to grow PFP have been driven by demand from Prudential’s customers who want a financial planning service that can advise them about their retirement options and investments.
“Many of our customers have been with us for years and growing our business will bring economies of scale enabling us to increase the support we can offer customers.”
The company was keen to stress that its target demographic for its financial planning arm are those currently holding Prudential products but without their own financial adviser - and that it is not trying to canabalise its core revenue stream, the intermediated distribution model.
Jeremy Edwards, a financial adviser with Martin Redman Partners, said: "In my day a lot of people started at Allied Dunbar or the Pru. More people in the marketplace has got to be a good thing because there is a shortage of advisers in general.
"If they provide training to youngsters then that could be valuable because it tends to be expensive and no one wants to pay for it."
Prudential’s ambitions to grow its financial planning division make it one of a number of providers attempting to compete with traditional financial advisers.
Among these is Standard Life, which launched its 1825 advice arm in 2015, following its purchase of Pearson Jones. It has subsequently acquired several other advisory businesses.
Meanwhile Old Mutual Wealth has been buying up firms for its Private Client Advisers business. It also owns restricted advice network Intrinsic.
damian.fantato@ft.com
