JMIS embraces regulatory changes, expands into DIMS

Click the NBR Radio box for on-demand special feature audio: ‘It has changed our world’ – Andrew Kelleher on JMIS’ move into DIMS

This week was a significant one for investment advisory firm JMIS.

After more than a quarter of a century providing services to high net worth individuals, corporate clients, superannuation funds, and family and charitable trusts, this Tuesday officially marked JMIS’ move into discretionary investment management services (DIMS).

As director Andrew Kelleher tells NBR Radio’s Andrew Patterson, the expansion of the firm’s services was prompted by a change in regulatory requirements.

When ASB Bank-owned insurance firm Sovereign decided it didn’t want to pursue its own DIMS license, Mr Kelleher says, “It created an opportunity for us to talk to them and say, ‘Hey, we think this would be an opportunity to expand the JMIS investment expertise and our general business expertise and leverage it through third party advisers into that retail part of the market, which isn’t somewhere where we had exposure to before.’”

As a result of those discussions earlier this year, all of Sovereign’s ex-Select Wealth Management staff have relocated to JMIS offices.

The discretionary investment management service offered will only be available to clients who have made the transition to the JMIS-managed service.

According to Mr Kelleher, advisers for more than 90% of the funds under administration have signed agreements with JMIS, with over $500 million of funds joining its new service.

He believes changes in the regulation of the investment industry will mean it continues to evolve in response.

“It’s going to force people to start looking at what they do and to decide if they stay niche and offer a very selective service or whether they want to leverage off that into other areas … [if they’ve] all the compliance work and done all the hard yards with the regulators.”

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