NAB Wealth boss muted on rise of IFAs

“We’ve been focused on improving the experience of advisers who deal with us,” Mr Hagger told ifa.

“We have growth aspirations for all our adviser channels and we see significant opportunities for that growth and wer'e investing into it.”

Despite this, Mr Hagger remained muted on the growth of IFAs, focusing instead on the bank’s self-employed advice channel.

“I don’t think numbers are moving significantly in either direction at the moment when it comes to advice offers,” he said.

“I think that we have been working strongly on our value proposition. We launched self-employed adviser initiatives some months ago and we are now seeing advisers transition to that business model.”

Currently, there are seven advisers in NAB’s self-employed model, with the number expected to rise to 11 by August, Mr Hagger said, adding that being aligned with NAB remains an attractive option.

“I think that, over time, advisers will continue to evaluate what is right for themselves and their customers and from our perspective we are a very pro-advice organisation,” he said.

“We have staked our advantage and our positioning on the quality of the advice and the need for Australians to save for their retirement and we have done that in a very pro-advice way, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Last week, NAB’s wealth management business reported a 28.2 per cent increase in cash earnings to $223 million for the six months to 31 March 2015.

At the same time, NAB Wealth received APRA approval for its life insurance arm to enter into a reinsurance arrangement with a major global reinsurer for about 21 per cent of its in-force retail advised insurance book