Strategy
Bluefin Restructures, Slashes Advisor Headcount To Around 50
UK-based Bluefin Advisory Services, part of AXA-owned Bluefin Group, has completed the restructuring of its private client business, which included cutting the number of advisors it employs from 180 to approximately 50.
The firm is positioning itself for the Retail Distribution Review programme of the UK financial regulator by requiring all its advisors to have a CII diploma level and Certified Financial Planner status.
The slimmed-down division will undertake selective recruitment according to its new standards and focus on providing advice to individuals with over £250,000 (around $360,640) of disposable assets.
The changes at the company follow the completion of a strategic review led by Suvan de Soysa, who joined the company as managing director, private clients in July 2009. The review was to prepare the business for a move towards a fee-based model across all its private client services, the firm said last September.
The implementation of the RDR by the Financial Services Authority is prompting some figures in the industry to fear that experienced financial advisors will leave the sector because they will be unwilling to take the exams required under the new programme, to be implemented in 2010. Also, while regulations purportedly raise standards, they can sometimes raise barriers to entry into markets, which arguably hampers competition and innovation.
On the other hand, the RDR is supposed to raise the standard of advice within the industry in terms of impartiality, and some have argued a fee-based model will give financial advisors a larger share of the asset management value chain.
In other recent news about the firm, Mike Godfrey, previously head of London and the Southeast at Bluefin, has left Bluefin Advisory Services, the UK-based provider of wealth management and financial planning advice, to go on a period of leave from the firm. A spokesperson for Bluefin told WealthBriefing that as far as the firm was concerned, Godfrey is on sabbatical.
Bluefin Advisory Service’s assets have stayed constant at around £500 million since the beginning of the year, the firm said in a statement; the group as a whole employs around 3,000 people at approximately 100 offices around the UK.