Colonial First State executive chairman Rob Coombe has set out to prove that traditional companies with shareholder profit motives can claw back market share in the $3.3 trillion superannuation sector, as he beefs up his leadership team and signals a high-stakes foray into financial advice.late last week, Mr Coombe said the firm’s newfound independence allowed it to compete with the increasingly powerful, trade union-linked industry superannuation funds.
and back-end infrastructure platforms, which the executive chairman said he was able to secure after presenting his multi-year strategy to the board, which includes both KKR and CBA representatives. CFS also quietly hired Martin Codina, former chief of staff to ex-treasurer Josh Frydenberg, as group executive for strategy, reputation and corporate affairs after the Coalition’s defeat at the May election. Both in Treasury and as a staffer at the Financial Services Council before that, Mr Codina is widely credited with significant influence over the industry’s policy settings over the past decade.
Mr Coombe said supporting that traditional distribution base would continue to be a priority, with the move of FirstWrap to new technology provided by $2 trillion global player FNZ. The new platform, CFS Edge, is expected to be rolled out early next year, which he said would provide lower costs and enhanced features to financial adviser users.But the chairman also revealed that CFS would, in the next six months, begin offering so-called intra-fund advice to members of its superannuation funds.
He also said CFS was “toying” with providing more comprehensive advice to mass affluent clients who had been abandoned by the industry, as many advice firms re-positioned to service high net worth clients amid rising regulatory compliance costs. The decision to partner with vendors such as FNZ and Bravura was motivated by a desire to “avoid the mistakes of others”, Mr Coombe said in a thinly veiled reference to Westpac’s BT Panorama platform, which is estimated to have cost the bank between $500 million to $1 billion to build.most likely to be purchased by CFS
any average joe / jill with some basic chart knowledge in identifying an 'up trend' (as sell when trend line is broken) on an ASX200 company could smash an industry funds return.
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