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.