Up to 30 Beacon advisers in search of new licensee

Last week, ifa reported that Beacon had terminated its agreement to acquire Linchpin-owned advice firm Libertas Financial Planning, agreeing to pay $2.7 million to owner Mark Euvrard and made an initial payment of $700,000 from Linchpin’s troubled IIOF fund.

The agreement fell through after Linchpin failed to meet its buyout commitments and defaulted.

Speaking exclusively to ifa, Beacon managing director Peter Daly confirmed that between 25 and 30 advisers have left the group and are in search of a new licensee.

“I want to try and make sure that the transition for Mark and his advisers is as seamless as possible without any major difficulties, and that's the undertaking we've given Mark,” Mr Daly said.

Mr Daly also confirmed there were two more interested parties in the deal, which he did not name citing confidentiality reasons.

However, he was unable to bring either party to meet the capital raise deadline of 4pm on 1 November.

Despite this, Mr Daly said Beacon itself should still achieve an operating profit of around $800,000, and has put on 23 recruits into the dealer group since 1 July.

“Our year-to-date income exceeds the same time last year and that's despite the number of advisers that have left us, so we're still performing exceptionally well,” Mr Daly said.

“But obviously, adviser morale particularly has somewhat been deflated and there are a number of parties out there who are actively trying to disturb, disrupt and recruit advisers, and try to persuade them that the sky is about to fall in. That's the difficulty that we currently face.

“As I read out to my own people not so long ago, the rumours of the death of Beacon at this stage are wildly exaggerated.”

Adrian Flores

Adrian Flores is a deputy editor at Momentum Media, focusing mainly on banking, wealth management and financial services. He has also written for Public Accountant, Accountants Daily and The CEO Magazine.

You can contact him on [email protected].