Trans-Tasman move driven by 'gap in market'
Australian broker aggregator Finsure Group has announced plans to expand its operations by opening a New Zealand division.
It will be the first international expansion for the mortgage adviser aggregator. Finsure has a big presence in Australia, boasting a membership network of more than 2,500 advisers across the nation.
Finsure is owned by diversified financial services firm MA Financial Group, which has more than $8 billion in assets under management.
Finsure NZ will be led by country manager Jenny Campbell (pictured above), a financial services industry stalwart, who was previously the CEO of the Mortgage Supply Company and was also general manager of both the Professional Advisers Association and the New Zealand Mortgage Broker Association.
Campbell said she was excited to be leading the Finsure NZ launch and introducing the local industry to a “world-class” adviser group and support network.
“I have been so impressed by what I have seen from Finsure in Australia and it’s a huge thrill for me to be heading the Group in New Zealand,” Campbell said.
Campbell said Finsure had identified a gap in the market in New Zealand and wanted to bring an aggregation model that delivered a full service offering with an attitude that “genuinely cares” about the advisers and their businesses.
“I feel Kiwi advisers are still leaving a lot of business on the table,” Campbell said.
“This was hammered home to me when I saw the scale of the commercial and asset lending programs in Australia. In New Zealand, small business owners are crying out for help, and I believe Finsure will deliver a suite of different options for advisers, all backed up by solid training and a comprehensive compliance program.”
Campbell said she had been convinced to join Finsure by not only the service offering and the compliance and support programs, but the company’s culture.
“You could not meet a more wonderful group of dynamic, caring, forward-thinking people, who are all about adding value to adviser businesses,” Campbell said.
Finsure CEO Simon Bednar (pictured below) said establishing Finsure NZ was a “pivotal moment” in Finsure’s history and an “exciting opportunity” to establish an aggregation business in New Zealand, based in Auckland.
“Since it was founded in 2011, Finsure has become one of the fastest growing aggregators in Australia, winning major industry awards and recognition by providing maximum value and helping advisers achieve their goals,” Bednar said.
“Our success has come from getting to know what an adviser needs, the nature of adviser achievement and gaining an understanding on how we can support our network to become some of the best advisers in the industry.”
Bednar said speaking with its Kiwi partners, Finsure had identified the need for a “holistic and comprehensive” aggregator service and had taken the opportunity to bring Finsure’s platform and services across the Tasman.
The Finsure offering, which has recently made strides towards open banking, extends across business planning right through to the execution of a wide range of support mechanisms.
The aggregator offers flexible commission structures, personalised marketing, educational workshops, proprietary software systems through to its CRM platform Infynity and ongoing compliance assistance.
Bednar said Campbell had spent 20 years in the financial services sector as an adviser and a lender before leading New Zealand mortgage industry professional bodies.
“Jenny has a wealth of contacts and experience and has been a relentless cheerleader for the New Zealand adviser community,” Bednar said.
Bednar said New Zealand mortgage advisers would see the clear benefits in moving away from a purely transactional model to one which instead treated them as a business partner.
“All our decisions are made not merely on what an adviser needs, but on what a small business owner needs – and that’s a very important difference,” Bednar said.
“At the very heart of our ethos is that Finsure is big enough to deliver, yet small enough to care. And it’s exactly this demonstrably strong care factor that we believe will attract New Zealand advisers, both new to the industry and long-established.”
