ANZ looks to grow adviser numbers

ANZ will double its staff of salaried wealth planners, the bank’s chief executive of global wealth and private banking says.

Thursday, November 29th 2012, 10:49AM

by Susan Edmunds

ANZ has 300 salaried advisers across Australia and New Zealand, and a total of 1439 owned or aligned advisers in New Zealand.

Joyce Phillips said it wanted to grow that figure to 600, which was an average amongst competitor banks.

Phillips said: “We’ve set a benchmark to double the size of our salaried planner group.”

A spokesman said most of that increase would be in Australia, but the number of AFAs operating under the ANZ QFE in this country would also increase.

“[Phillips] was saying that we are underweight compared to our Australian peer group in salaried planners, so we intend to grow this capability. We’ll grow our strength in planners in New Zealand too where we already have the largest presence of AFAs in the country.”

He said ANZ was still committed to dealing with external advisers. “Direct is a relatively new model reflecting the client segment that is emerging as self-directed. We believe we can maintain focus on a healthy diversified distribution footprint.”

Philips said the bank was looking at ways to leverage off the new portability of superannuation funds across the Tasman.

ANZ was looking at how its Smartchoice Super offering could be used for Kiwisaver accounts that had been taken to Australia, and used in New Zealand for Australian accounts that had been brought here.

ANZ this week unveiled a partnership with Swiss private bank Vontobel.

The deal will see ANZ's private banking clients offered a broader range of products and capabilities including global investments, structured products and discretionary portfolio management services.
Phillips said: "It provides a pathway to develop a distinctive relationship with Vontobel that will deliver a unique offering for all of our private bank clients in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.”

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