Independent Financial Advice

 

Independent Financial Advice

 

Established by Dennis Barton (who is still one of our directors today) in 1982, Andep Investment Consultancy was one of Perth’s first independent financial advice practices. The name “Andep” is a contraction of “Analytical and Independent”. Andep was the first Western Australian and third Australian organisation to offer hourly fee based investment advice and this is still the basis of our fee structure today.  With so many options available and decisions to make, it can be difficult to navigate the complex world of finance and investments. That’s why it is important to engage an independent financial planner wherever possible to ensure you are receiving unbiased advice. 

 

At Andep we do not accept any commissions, charge asset based or ongoing fees. We have a transparent fee structure using both hourly rates and fixed fees for tasks (more information about our fees available here).  Using an independent financial adviser can provide you with peace of mind that the advice is free from product bias. 

 

Andep has no ownership or licensing links to any of the bank or other financial product providers and avoid conflicts of interest at every opportunity.

 

 

Andep’s history of independence

When Andep was initially established, investment advice was routinely provided at no direct cost to the client and the adviser was remunerated by initial commissions and sometimes trailing commissions, both of which were fixed and could not be changed.  There was no capacity for fund managers to rebate fees that would have gone in commission to advisers to clients instead.  So Andep passed the commissions through its trust account, back to clients.   In the early days, before “dial down” of commissions,  this was the only way clients could benefit from Andep’s independence from commissions.  

 

Partly as a response to Andep and other genuinely independent advisers, some, but far from all, fund managers began, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to offer commissions that were variable down to zero.  Andep’s clients always took maximum advantage of this “dial down” capacity.     

 

Thanks to many years of reform to the financial advice industry,  investment commissions are now largely a thing of the past.  However insurance commissions still remain. When establishing new insurance policies Andep advisers decline all commissions and this is passed on to clients as a discount to the premium.  For already established policies transferred to an Andep adviser where possible we dial the commission down to zero otherwise we rebate all insurance commissions back to our clients each year less a small administration fee. 

 

 

Andep has always been located close to or in Perth.  We started in Altona Street, West Perth, then in 1990 moved to Parliament Place, West Perth, moving again to Hardy Street South Perth in 1997 and then in 2000 to its current building at 251 Adelaide Terrace Perth.