Strategi takes over Adviserlink's business
Two providers of financial adviser education services, the Strategi Institute and Mentor Education (formerly Adviserlink), are to merge and will operate under the Strategi brand.
Tuesday, September 4th 2012, 6:49AM 
4 Comments
by Niko Kloeten
Melbourne-based Mentor Education took over Adviserlink’s business in June after Adviserlink was put into liquidation following an application by Inland Revenue. According to the first liquidator’s report by the Official Assignee, Adviserlink owes just under $460,000.
Mentor Education general manager David Cairns said the need for scale was the main reason the company decided to enter the merger only a couple of months after it took over Adviserlink’s business.
“That’s the major issue; we do have real issues in New Zealand with the number of AFAs. Trying to get a business to support the advisers or at least the advisers who want to be professional is very difficult.”
Cairns said he would continue to work for the new company and would look after the “back end” while Strategi, as the face of the business, would look after the “front end”.
Strategi managing director David Greenslade also cited the need for scale.
“This industry has seen far too much duplication of resources, platforms and content for far too long: all this has done is keep prices high as no-one has had any scale to improve quality and drive down costs,” he said.
The new company is launching an upgraded CPD platform that will be fronted by Strategi Institute and will operate on the Mentor CPDplus education portal, which will allow advisers to access all their educational requirements using their computers or smartphones.
“We want to partner with corporates, QFEs, professional associations, adviser groups and other parties to ensure that the platform is relevant to the needs of all users,” Greenslade said.
All National Certificate in Financial Services Level 5 training previously run by Mentor Education will now be administered by Strategi Institute, which will immediately take over responsibility for assessments and uploading of NZQA credits.
Niko Kloeten can be contacted at niko@goodreturns.co.nz
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In which case I completely agree.
Didn't the ETITIO expect over 5000 AFAs? I always thought they should have stuck with ambulance drivers, prison guards and electricians.
As for Mr Cairns: There's a difference between wanting us lowly RFAs to aspire to higher credentials and insulting and demeaning us for making a legitimate decision.
A sweeping insinuation that RFAs are unprofessional is not likely to have us all lining up to pay our insulter. It's rather like that pathetic story about the school teacher who said Leann Rimes was trying to "berate me into liking her".
I can only conclude:
1. No proper market research done, only assumptions are made.
2. Whatever that has been assumed, they do not factor in the human psychology aspects of it - theories don't work most the time, it's the people that will be involved or affected that will determine if it is going to work.
3. GREED - they only see the dollar signs.
Finally, you may try your best to be professional, but at the end of the day, it is still up to the regulators who will determine if they agree that your actions are compliant or not based on their own interpretation of the regulations, not yours or your legal adviser's interpretation, and they will never tell you.
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So once again a training organisation lays the blame for its problems on adviser’s feet. I’m terrible sorry David if you and other organisations like ETITO horribly underestimated the number of advisers that would ultimately want to become AFA. There continues to be a strong bias from certain individuals such as you who would tell us that unless an adviser is AFA they should not be working in the industry today. Making a statement that implies that RFAs aren’t professional in what we do every day with our clients is not going to win you many friends.