Towergate moves to double figures in its acquisitions!

Legal & General, according to Money Marketing, have announced a re-structure of its IFA Wealth support team, which will result in the team being reduced by nearly a third. The team which comprises of both technical support, but also IFA Business Development Managers, will lose approx 35 people out of 121. A spokesman from L&G stated that this re-structure reflects market changes.

I think this won’t be the only issue with L&G; they have a professional, driven sales force, in my opinion, but will be running out of branch networks for them to operate out of, starting with Northern Rock, and now with Bradford & Bingley. They still have distribution channels through Alliance & Leicester, but this will be under threat with the Abbey Santander situation. Maybe driving their product range to a smaller, but more streamlined IFA market maybe a credible option, but not with a reduced sales force. However, I do understand that Life Offices have to make “jam today” also, and there are less IFAs out there, due to RDR etc, for Life Office BDM’s to sell to. An impossible quandary for some!

Talking of Santander earlier, their Asset Management arm has launched a series of growth & income portfolios, as part of a new promotion of Investment fund with more “mass market” appeal! The logic is that, with these products available through Abbey branches, with no upfront costs, these may appeal to a changing Bancassurance market, who are more concerned with Income returns, than before!

I’m fascinated to see how the Abbey Santander group, accommodate, merge & combine, all their equally distinctive brands, with Bradford & Bingley & Alliance & Leicester being part of the collective. I’m been wracking my brains to come up with an acronym that might fit. Do email in ideas…..maybe….ABAS Banking Group. Don’t worry, I will patent it!

A big promotion for Bryan Innes at Towry Law. They’ve promoted him to Senior Client Partner, which is reserved only for the very pinnacle of their Wealth team. Apparently, he’s been instrumental in building relationships with the Oil and Gas industry in Scotland. Well done Mr Innes!

It’s good to hear positive stories in the IFA market, and I think, National and Regional IFAs should reward those individual that don’t sit on their hands and moan about the “credit crunch”, but those who build relationships, even in bad times, and are well placed when the good times come back.

The FSA have announced that Trainee IFAs will be allowed to give advice to clients, whilst still studying for QCA level 4 Qualification, if supervised by their manager. Basically, these new benchmark Qualifications for Trainees to take before they are ready to advise across the board, will be a huge Investment for IFAs before they see any economic return from the new Industry entrant.

I believe this is a very practical approach from the FSA, realising that IFAs have to reach for new goals in terms of TCF, RDR, new qualifications, but in the meantime, they have be economically viable, and keep turnover ticking along, in order to survive.

Finally, Towergate, made the headlines in 2008, with their aggressive growth plan, but don’t think they’ve taken a rest in 2009. They’ve recently announced their tenth acquisition with its takeover of IFA & GI Brokerage Smith Blamires. This will bring their total adviser number to 100 & Financial Chief Exec, Ian Darby stated that they will continue to add high quality businesses to their group, but that they can offer IT support & a leading brand to these acquisitions!

To finish on, these Mergers & Acquisitions are a result of not just the down-turn or recession. I think the industry itself, is changing to a more streamlined, fee based approach with a higher standard of education for IFAs, and smaller firms have realised that aligning themselves with the right type of larger firm will give them a more prosperous future.