Guardian Trust gets 60 AFAs – despite exemption
About 60 Guardian Trust employees will become Authorised Financial Advisers, despite an exemption given to trustee companies in the Financial Advisers Act.
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About 60 Guardian Trust employees will become Authorised Financial Advisers, despite an exemption given to trustee companies in the Financial Advisers Act.
The exemption means ordinary activities of trustees don’t require advisers to be authorised.
However, Guardian Trust managing director John Botica says having a strong contingent of AFAs on hand is useful for clients.
Forty-five Guardian Trust advisers became AFAs when the new regime came in on July 1 and the company plans to have another 15 qualified by the end of the year.
“Technically a trustee company is exempt for core services like wills, estates, trustees and enduring power of attorney.”
But he says, “We really have this desire to support the government’s goal in increasing confidence and participation in the financial market,”.
“We are very committed to the client-centric model we run – when advisers talk day-to-day with clients we need to put them in the position where delivery of services is the best it could be.”
He says a lot of the benefit comes from the training behind being an AFA.
“The rigour of the education that sits behind enables our people to be more professional in their approach. It puts them in a position to have intelligent conversations with clients.”
Guardian Trust was bought by listed Australian company The Trust Company earlier this year.
Niko Kloeten
Fri, 26 Aug 2011
Fri, 26 Aug 2011
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Guardian Trust gets 60 AFAs – despite exemption
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