Macquarie Bank expands adviser network program

In an effort to support the next generation of high-performing advice firms, the Macquarie VAN program has been expanded to include a dedicated “Build for the Future” program designed for principals of firms with up to $5 million in revenue, and also aimed at firms on a strong growth trajectory who are looking for a collaborative network to further facilitate evolution and sustainability for their practices.

The bank said its VAN team has worked with principals across over 100 industry leading firms to assist them in growing and evolving their practices so they might thrive in an increasingly complex landscape for the last 10 years.

Cameron Garrett, head of wealth solutions at Macquarie, said it is vital to support the firms of the future in order to ensure that high-quality financial advice in Australia remains sustainable.

He said that Macquarie “believes in the value of financial advice and the benefit it brings to Australians on their wealth creation journey”. However, as need and demand for quality advice grows, there’s also a decline in adviser numbers across the industry, resulting in a “shrinking base of knowledge and talent to serve this need”.

“Ultimately, it is these firms that are playing a key role in ensuring a sustainable financial advice industry to serve the needs of Australians, both now and into the future,” Mr Garrett said.

In the last 18 months, 21 principals from advice firms across Australia have been working closely with Macquarie on the expansion, embedding critical tools, frameworks and practices to give their firms a platform for their next growth phase, which has earned them a total of 32 CPD points in the process.

The content is delivered via a series of workshops, webinars, conferences and benchmarking exercises, focusing on Macquarie VAN’s four business success drivers; making better decisions and executing them successfully; holding a strong differentiated position; planning for sustainable growth and understanding the benefits of scale; and encouraging a culture of ownership.

Head of Macquarie’s VAN, Sherise Mercer, said Macquarie was led to launching the new program as a result of the deep expertise developed through supporting larger advice firms.

“We’ve been running the VAN program for more than a decade, and over that time, we’ve developed deep insights on the business model elements that characterise large, successful advice businesses in Australia,” Ms Mercer said.

“We saw an opportunity to expand our VAN offering with a new program focused on working with principals of high growth, emerging advice practices on their journeys to becoming the firms of the future.”

The program places emphasis on creating a sense of community among advice principals while allowing like-minded business leaders to unite and share their experiences and knowledge in a collaborative environment.

Ms Mercer added that they found that one of the “most consistent themes” heard from principals is this value they placed on the community established through the program, since running an advice business can “be an isolating experience”.

“The industry is always evolving,” she continued, further stating the importance of high-growth firms to “be able to learn from their peer’s successes and pitfalls,” for the purpose of creating better and faster outcomes. 

In May, the bank’s platform business recorded funds on platform of $118.6 billion in the year leading up to March 31, presenting a rise of 17 per cent on a year earlier.

Furthermore, the firm said its managed accounts funds under administration were $7.9 billion as of March 2022, compared to $5.4 billion last year as they looked to pursue the continued expansion of its Macquarie Wrap managed accounts offering.