Aim “is not just to be a big aggregator”
Financial Advice Provider Services (FAP Services) has just completed its first 12 months of business, and founder and managing director Cecilia Farrow said the company is “on track with its growth plans,” with 14 member businesses across Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Christchurch.
Farrow said the main driver behind starting FAP Services was to fill a gap in the market when it came to adviser networks, and to offer training, technology and compliance assistance to independent brokerages across New Zealand.
“The decision to create FAP Services came out of my years of experience in the industry, both as an adviser and as the founder of Triplejump, which is a cloud platform that we provide to members of our network,” Farrow said.
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“I also had a lot of experience in training advisers in business risk, and one of the things I’ve observed since the regulatory environment started to change is that there were gaps in the market.”
“There were a lot of advisers who were feeling disenfranchised when it came to the network they were in, how those networks were being remunerated, and how services were being delivered to the members of those groups,” Farrow explained.
“In the new regulatory environment, it’s incumbent on the license holder to demonstrate competency, capability and compliance with the Code, and I could see that a lot of advisers were doing everything manually. They were looking for more robust training, more professional development, and technology to enable them to work efficiently, safely and in a compliant way.”
FAP Services currently has three key offerings - training and mentoring, business and marketing development, and technology support. Farrow said she is pleased with the network’s growth so far, and the strategy from here will be focused around providing value to its members.
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“Our goal is not just to be a big aggregator, and to have a whole lot of people in the network whether or not they’re performing,” Farrow said.
“We want to make sure that there’s a very high-touch and high-value relationship on both sides.”
“We think of ourselves as a member organisation, so we do due diligence on businesses who want to come into our network, and they also do their due diligence on us,” she added. “We deliver a whole range of services aimed at helping our members grow and be more successful, and so we really want to be market leaders within their community.”
