Two large investment adviser firms merge

Richard Holden

Trading under the existing Milestone Financial brand, the joint venture will have offices in Auckland,  Whanganui, Wellington, Christchurch, Timaru, Dunedin and Queenstown, providing client advice for over $1.4 billion of investment funds and $6 million of insurance annual premium.

Richard Holden, board member for the restructured entity and principal of Milestone Financial in Canterbury, said that with the impending implementation of the Financial Services Legislation Amendment Bill (FSLAB) and changes to the Financial Advisers Act, firms now need both size and depth to accommodate the changes.

Milestone Financial is already developing a central servicing facility which will enable advisers to tap into compliance services, governance, marketing, technology and much more. The scale of the entity will also allow for adviser career progression, succession opportunities and the purchase of businesses from those advisers wishing to retire.

Fellow board member Ricky Bennett and principal of Milestone Financial in Queenstown said that the JV concept differs from the corporatisation model in that it is a collaborative or co-operative approach, which allows individual practices to benefit from the scale of the corporate but not be culturally swamped  by it.