Australian Unity offloads AFSL, advice business

Fortnum and Nestworth Financial Strategists, a professional advisory firm owned by AZ NGA and a corporate-authorised representative of Fortnum, have partnered to acquire Australian Unity’s financial advice business and create an “ongoing tripartite alliance to make quality advice accessible to more Australians”.

Under the deal, Nestworth Financial Strategists will acquire Australian Unity’s employed advice business consisting of 18 employee financial advisers. It will also acquire the group’s corporate superannuation services business and become one of Australian Unity’s preferred advice providers.

Fortnum will also purchase Australian Unity’s financial advice AFSL holder, Australian Unity Personal Financial Services (PFS), and continue to provide licensing and business support to PFS’s 150 self-employed advisers.

Nestworth chief executive Paul Fog said the deal would help Australians who need good advice but currently don’t get it.

“This is an exciting alliance that increases our capability and capacity to help more people to develop and implement a solid financial strategy, build their nest egg, and achieve their goals and aspirations,” Mr Fog said.

Neil Younger, CEO of Fortnum Private Wealth, added that the deal would deliver immediate scale and increase the combined number of advisers across two AFS licences to around 400.

“Scale is increasingly important because it enables licensees to offer a broader range of solutions and better support underlying businesses, but we’re not interested in growth for the sake of it,” Mr Younger said.

“We only want to partner with high-quality people and businesses, and there is a lot of alignment between Fortnum and Australian Unity’s PFS business in terms of culture, values, and operating model.

“Fortnum is a collaborative community of passionate professionals, and we are excited to welcome Australian Unity’s PFS business. We believe that Fortnum and PFS have some of the best people in the industry, and in bringing it alongside Fortnum, we are creating a truly formidable team.”

Australian Unity Advice currently services around 31,000 clients across both the employed and self-employed advice channels.

Esther Kerr, CEO, wealth and capital markets at Australian Unity, said: “This is about the next phase of growth for an advice business we’ve built over 20 years. It will help more Australians in future to access high quality, affordable advice that benefits them, and the strategic alliance and preferred provider relationship means members and staff will enjoy access to this growing advice network.

“We have chosen Fortnum and AZ NGA’s Nestworth because of their strong leadership teams, unwavering focus on client best interest, and commitment to investing in personal advice for the long term.”

Paul Barrett, AZ NGA CEO, said the deal reflected the firm’s ability to support advisory firms to capture opportunities to grow their business and execute their strategy.

“Paul Fog and his leadership team run a very successful business and they have deep experience in managing large advice teams and delivering consistently excellent holistic advice,” Mr Barrett said.

“They have spent a lot of time developing and refining their business strategy, and we are proud to be able to support them on their journey.”

The transaction is expected to be completed by 1 December 2023.