NAB financial advisers move to IOOF

According to ASIC data, 21 advisers previously licensed by NAB’s Meritum Financial Group crossed over since February 2017 to IOOF’s Consultum dealer group.

Last week, IOOF chief executive Chris Kelaher told both Fairfax Media and News Corp Australia the group had recently poached 50 financial advisers, but declined to name the institution they came from.

Mr Kelaher said he expects more advisers to join, and does not want to jeopardise the opportunity by identifying the institution.

When asked by ifa, IOOF would neither confirm nor deny whether NAB is the institution. 

"IOOF is an advice-led business and therefore we are always focused on attracting high-quality advisers to our network," Mr Kelaher told ifa.

"Advisers value our multi-brand and open architecture approach which provides choice and easy access to a broad range of financial solutions. Attracting advisers to IOOF supports our organic growth, as highlighted through our strong third-quarter flow, where we attracted inflows of $998 million."

ASIC data shows IOOF has 1,007 advisers within its network. 

ifa reported in February that IOOF was seeing a historically high number of advisers fleeing rival institutions, believing a focus on product over advice to be a trigger factor.

“Our pipeline is stronger than it’s ever been in terms of new advisers,” IOOF group general manager, wealth management, Renato Mota told ifa at the time.