Under the deal Mortgage Supply’s 20 advisers will aggregate through Astute and the group’s 120, non-branded advisers, currently under the NZMA banner, will become Astute advisers.
Mortgage Supply chief executive Jenny Campbell will become the National Sales Manager for Astute.
She says Astute has the “complete package” and that it a high-touch model which is adviser-centric.
The transition of the NZMA advisers to Astute will take a couple of months and Campbell expects some will decide not to make the move.
“Adviser groups should be working together for a better outcome for everybody.”
Campbell working out how to run a group under the new compliance regime which is coming soon has been an issue causing “sleepness nights.”
Joining Astute is the “golden key” she had been looking for because of its systems and the fact it had been through the Australian compliance regime.
She says Astute is setting a high bar and its systems and processes will be hard for a New Zealand group to replicate.
Campbell is highly impressed with Astute’s CRM, GEM. “I’ve studied CRMs until my eyes have bled,” she says.
“(GEMS) blew my socks off.”
She describes it as “the most amazing CRM I have ever seen.”
In her opinion it will create time savings for advisers and improve their workflow.
Campbell believes this will be the start of further consolidation in the industry. She says some groups have their heads in the sand over the upcoming regulatory changes and that later this year, early next year there will be a real scramble to when they try to work out what they are going to do under the licensing regime.
“I think there’s going to be a real shake up in the market,” she says.
