Boutique takes stake in AMP practice

In a statement today, boutique wealth management firm Affinity Group announced it has launched its new Brisbane practice through the purchase of 50 per cent of the Brisbane CBD-based Hillross practice.

Principal adviser at the Brisbane Hillross practice Paul Hocking said moving under the Affinity banner was an exciting opportunity for his clients.

“Moving away from a large dealer-based operating model was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up because I will be able to offer my clients so many more options when it comes to managing their wealth portfolios,” Mr Hocking said.

Affinity Wealth’s founder and senior partner Keith Jones said he is seeing an increased desire for agencies to part company with large dealer groups to give their clients more options.

“While there are advantages to being aligned with institutional dealer groups, we found these arrangements were often inflexible and the administration and compliance burden was often onerous,” Mr Jones said.

Affinity’s increase in size of funds under management also offered all Affinity clients far greater opportunities, he said.

“These are opportunities which are simply not available through retail investors, including large bank-owned dealer groups,” Mr Jones said.

Affinity’s purchase of Brisbane Hillross sees the company’s funds management increase to more than half a billion dollars, the statement said.