Risk practice joins boutique licensee

Keyman Financial Services (KFS), a NSW-based firm that specialises in life insurance advice, is the latest firm to join Intelligent Planning since it relaunched in January.

“It’s fantastic to have Keyman on board. They were the NSW winners of the AFA’s 2021 Great Advice Award and they’re a great bunch of people, highly thought of in our community,” said Matthew Wallis, Intelligent Planning’s advice distribution manager.

KFS is headed up by principal Terry Johnson and was formerly an authorised representative of Synchron.

As the firm is one of the “first wave” of advice practices to join Intelligent Planning, Wallis said it has been allocated a part-share of the business.

“A part-share gives our first practices a bit of ownership in the group and therefore the opportunity to have a say in how we run the business,” he said.

“We’re finding that our offer, which also includes a flat licence pricing model and a friendly, community-type atmosphere is something advisers really like. We’ve even heard ourselves talked about as ‘a breath of fresh air’.”

In January, Dirigere Advisory relaunched as Intelligent Planning offering financial licensing through the Dirigere licence.

At the time, managing director Phil Osborne explained: “We are offering our first advisers a degree of ownership in Intelligent Planning and therefore guaranteeing we hear their voices about how we operate.”

Along with Osborne and Wallis, fellow founding member and former Rothschild UK financial adviser Damian Grimes took on the role as chief investment officer.

Other practices with Intelligent Planning include Wallis’ Sydney-based business, Beta Advice, as well as Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) board member Katherine Hayes’ Canberra-based firm Hayes & Co, Sydney-based holistic practice 1981, owned by Benjamin Brookes, and NOR Financial, which primarily services professionals in the medical field, owned by Shaun Clements.

Intelligent Planning said it expects to make an announcement about bringing another practice on board within a matter of weeks.