By
Stephen Blaxhall and Madeleine Collins Fri 27 Jul 2007
Plan B is carving up the IFA market using its size to win deals.
Newly listed Plan B Group Holdings (Plan B) has crossed the Tasman to secure its first white label deal with a New Zealand financial advice practice.
The Perth firm's dealer group Partnership Financial Services (PFS) has signed a three-year contract with the South Island's Polson Higgs Wealth Management for an undisclosed sum.
Polson Higgs will pay PFS for giving financial and investment advice to their clients and for gaining access to PFS's processes and systems.
Polson Higgs Wealth Management is a subsidiary of Polson Higgs Business Advisers, a chartered accounting and advice firm with 3000 clients and $NZ90 million under management.
Polson Higgs chairman Stephen Higgs said the group has been talking to Plan B for 12 months, though stipulated the listing was not the motivation behind the deal.
He said Plan B's operations and investment methods were cutting edge and in line with the best interest of clients.
"This has not been cost-driven at all," he said.
The group employs four financial advisers but will hire more staff under arrangement, which is known as the Affinity Partners Program.
Over time PFS will replace Polson Higg's arrangement with another firm that provides similar services.
Plan B began trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on July 11 after the group raised $30 million through an initial public offering (IPO), which was oversubscribed.
Plan B is using its listing and the IPO to acquire independent advice practices in the eastern states and forge wholesale supplier, or white label deals with advice firms.
Four eastern seaboard practices and three West Australian practices are participating in pilot white label deals.
Another three are underway in New Zealand.
It recently bought two practices in Perth and three practices in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast under its licence.
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