Fiducian cites short-term pain for longer-term gain

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

14 February 2023

Fiducian Group has cited short-term cost to reap longer-term benefits when reporting a 17% decline in net profit to $5,544 million for the half-year ended 31 December.

The board declared a dividend of 12.30 cents per share fully-franked.

The company cited continuing global challenges but said that in spite of the difficult economic, financial market and geopolitical turmoil, Fiducian’s growth strategy had not faltered and is operations had expanded.

“We believe this to have come at a short term cost, which should eventually reap benefits for shareholders once things settle down,” it said.

The directors said that Fiducian had expanded its financial planning presence throughout Australia with four new offices now open in South Australia and one in the Northern Territory and that the number of financial planners had increased from 66 to 84.

“As we report, another five franchisees have qualified through our tough selection criteria and are in the process of being inducted or have begun operations under the Fidcuian branding,” the company said.

It said its staff numbers increased by 41, primarily as a result of acquisitions and this included the recruitment of 23 new staff to provide salaried planners with appropriate support to align with Fiducian’s one support staff per financial adviser strategy.

The half-year report also noted that Fiducian’s acquisition of Peoples Choice Credit Union’s financial planning business and transitioning over 3,500 clients had taken longer than anticipated.

It said that, to date, approximately 23% of acquired client revenue did not opt-in to transfer to Fiducian, “mainly being clients serviced by advisers who did not join Fiducian, something not unexpected”.