Former AFA Rising Stars launch start-up 'academy'

Rising Tide Financial Services – formally Financial Design for Life – is launching Club RT, a financial planning business model designed for younger advisers looking to become "masters of their own destiny". 

“We want to provide a business model where younger advisers can be entrepreneurs, can get out there and make better businesses of what they have, and can provide the financial advice they want to, without having to sell or recommend just a few products,” Rising Tide general manager Chris Browne said.

“We are creating an opportunity, providing these advisers with the freedom, and safer pathways to reach their business vision.”

Club RT is the initiative Mr Browne and Matt Hale – both former AFA Rising Star Award winners – and aims to help the next generation past loan barriers, as the banks “won’t lend as freely to young people like they used to.”

The model provides planners with a “complete business solution” including access to licensing through NAB-owned licensee Apogee, Kaplan online financial planning training, an X-plan subscription and compliance support as well as access to its Melbourne clubhouse, containing client meeting spaces.

Club RT said it aims to be 30 per cent more affordable than other business advisory offers in the market.

Former Rising Tide financial planner Craig Bigelow has already signed on to be the first Club RT member, saying it gives him a “safety net” for starting his own business.

“I want to share the ride with mates, and I am keen to be in business for myself in the future,” Mr Bigelow said.

“Club RT has provided me the safety net I need to be able to do that, and the guys I used to work for are now my business mentors.”

Club RT officially launches on July 4 at the Rising Tide headquarters in Docklands, Melbourne.