BT exec joins Austock Life

Austock Life has also recruited Bob Scherini as distribution manager for Western Australia and South Australia, with the appointments following the recent addition of Tony Gobbo.

“Steve [Newnham]’s appointment reunites him with former, long-time BT colleague Tony Gobbo, who recently joined us as national sales manager,” Austock life managing director Ross Higgins said in a statement.

Mr Gobbo worked at BT from 1986 to 2008, and joined Perpetual Wealth in 2009. Mr Newnham has also held distribution roles at Zurich, Australian Ethical and Lonsec.

“Both Tony and Steve started out in the law, and together gathered invaluable sales and distribution experience during BT’s halcyon, growth era,” Mr Higgins added.

“Bob Scherini’s appointment as our WA/SA Distribution Manager is also a good one for us because Bob used to look after WA for Austock Life some years ago, and he already knows our products and strategies. Bob is returning after three or so years with Russell, and more recently as GM Adviser Services at Wealth Today.”

Mr Higgins said all three appointments are the result of the group favouring “seasoned people with backgrounds to suit our strategy-based and hands-on approach to working with financial advisers.”

He said the three appointments complete the group’s moves to expand its sales and distribution teams to a natioanl footprint in response to increaser adviser demand for insurance bonds.

“In the new [Future of Financial Advice] era, the product discussion will increasingly make sense after the strategy review has occurred and advisers are demanding strategy focused providers so as clients receive real added value to their financial planning outcomes,” Mr Higgins said.