Fiducian posts full-year growth, eyes more work with IFAs

The company announced a full-year net profit after tax of $5.75 million, up 28 per cent on the previous year, following a restructure of staff to handle more acquired financial planning businesses.

Fiducian also reported that a portion of its funds under advice has been withdrawn by independent financial advisers who sold their businesses to other dealer groups.

"The bulk of our withdrawals are from IFAs, but we believe that the rate of IFA withdrawals has slowed as many of their clients have been with Fiducian for a long time," the company said.

"Efforts are underway to build new relationships and net inflow from non-aligned financial planner groups. Our full service offer, supported by last year's product restructure, could allow a non-aligned small dealer with a Fiducian relationship to become competitive against large-scale financial planning dealer groups."

Fiducian's funds under advice now stand at around $1.71 billion, up from $1.37 billion last year.

After year's end, Fiducian acquired two financial planning client bases, with around $145 million under advice. The financial planners are now operating under Fiducian licence and contributions to revenue began in July, Fiducian said.

"As acquisitions continue to assimilate into our processes, they should deliver increased revenue and demonstrate our disciplined approach to balancing growth and returns," Fiducian said.

As part of the company restructure – which was completed in February – Fiducian appointed several new senior roles, 11 new financial planners and 11 support staff to take on acquired advice businesses and expansion of the financial planner network, Fiducian said in a statement.

"As a consequence, cash operating expenses have increased by 16.9 per cent in 2015. The board is comfortable with the increased staff numbers which should further add to the group's growth initiatives," the statement said.