Insignia responds to speculation of sale of executor trustees business

Insignia Financial Limited (IFL) has responded to a speculation that it will sell its Australian executor trustees (AET) business.

As reported by AFR, Equity Trustees is gearing up to put forward an offer for the wealth giant's AET business.

In a statement released on Friday (19 August), IFL noted an announcement in February that it would "undertake a competitive sale process" for the business.

"IFL confirms that, consistent with the sale process it announced in February, it is in discussions with a third party in respect of the sale of AET," the statement read.

"No agreement has been reached on any transaction.

"IFL will provide a further update to the market in relation to this matter as and when appropriate."

In its own statement also released on Friday, Equity Trustees announced that it had revised the date to release its full-year results to Monday (22 August) and that it is "in discussions regarding a proposed material acquisition".

"There is no certainty that a transaction will occur," Equity Trustees' statement read.

The news comes after IFL released its latest quarterly business update last month, where it confirmed that there were 1,600 advisers in its network as of 30 June, a reduction of 82 advisers compared to the previous quarter.

It stated that the fall was partly driven by the integration of MLC Advice into Bridges, which it said resulted in the departure of 30 advisers but had no impact on client numbers or revenue.

The firm also confirmed the departure of 43 advisers from the self-employed channel, typically from smaller practices, as well as nine advisers from the self-licensed channel.

“There continued to be some shifts in the self-employed channel as Insignia Financial progresses the sustainability of the Advice business, with a number of practices opting to sell their client books or transition to a self-licensed model,” IFL said at the time.

“As part of its proposition to self-employed advisers, Insignia Financial was able to broker a number of internal M&A transactions retaining a significant proportion of the sold client books with pre-existing practices in the Insignia Financial licensees.”

Insignia noted that it had seen a “stabilisation in the level of departures” since the start of the current financial year and suggested that departures would continue to moderate moving ahead.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.