Antony Michell, chairman of the Henley Group, said the decision to push ahead with the revamp – rather than waiting, as many other companies are doing, until the review is completed, and any regulatory changes have been announced – was made almost as soon as the Financial Advisory Industry Review (FAIR) was unveiled in March.
“Because we know change is coming, it seemed to make far more sense to come out with possible responses to the likely changes, than to wait,” he said, calling the review “a tremendous catalyst” for changes that, at Henley Group at least, were already in the works.
“It was evident to us that FAIR represents a tremendous opportunity for quality IFAs to develop their overall client value proposition,” he added.
Within days of Monetary Authority of Singapore Ravi Menon’s speech outlining the review on 26 March, Michell said, a Henley Group management team set to work on a formal FAIR response strategy, “to encompass all aspects of the business”.
The strategy was broken down into approximately 10 separate projects, which included the development of a fee-based proposition, even though Michell, like most Singapore-based financial services executives, says he does not expect the FAIR review to result in commissions being banned completely, as they have been in UK with the Retail Distribution Review, taking effect in January.
“Our strong view at The Henley Group is that the future is not commissions and it is not fees, it is very much client choice. And we see the opportunity to use this ‘client choice’ business model in all of our offices, not just in Singapore.
“Certainly the days of building a business just around initial commissions with little focus on ongoing fees are over.”
Another response Michell said the company is making is to look to hire “slightly older advisers” than it has done previously, “because if you recognise that many clients are going to want fee-based advice, they’ll want to talk to someone with a greater level of experience”.
Henley Group has been looking after expatriate investors in Asia for 22 years, and currently has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.
It began in Hong Kong, opened the Singapore office in 2006 and the Shanghai office in 2011.
Counting all three of its offices, it employs more than 50 advisers, and has assets under advice of close to $1bn.
