People Moves
Australia-Based House Buys Stake In US Group; Hires Announced

The Australia-based investments firm has bought a minority stake in the US wealth management house, with the latter firm also unveiling a set of new hires.
California-headquartered United
Capital Financial Advisers, with over $16 billion of client
assets under management, has inked a strategic partnership with
Australia-headquartered AMP, as well as announcing a
series of hires.
AMP has acquired a minority equity stake in United Capital, the
latter firm said in a statement yesterday; specific financial
terms weren’t disclosed.
While discussions between the two firms began because of AMP’s
interest in licensing FinLife Partners, the talks evolved into a
discussion around a more strategic intellectual property sharing
partnership, United Capital said in a statement.
Separately, the FinLife Partners business, which was launched by
United Capital last April and which gives advisers access to the
latter’ss proprietary Financial Life Management platform, is off
to an “incredibly fast start”. So far, some $6.9 billion of
assets under contract have been delivered; several more billion
dollars are expected to come in by the end of 2017, it
said.
“The impressive growth of FinLife Partners, in addition to the
expansion of the firm’s core financial life management business
which has grown $2.4 billion this year to $19.8 billion in total
AuM, has prompted United Capital to hire more people, it
said.
Joiners
The hires are Phillip D Rogerson, CFA, chief business officer of
FinLife Partners; Edward Kummer, chief marketing officer, and Min
Zhang, vice president of digital product management.
Rogerson will be responsible for the continued development and
execution of the FinLife Partners business plan. He joins from
Russell Investments, where he served in various positions since
1988.
Kummer previously worked at Luxottica, the eyewear company, where
he served as chief marketing and digital officer for the Oakley
brand.
Zhang, CFA, is responsible for enhancing United Capital’s
software products and innovating new solutions that will add
value to clients and advisors. Prior to creating and leading
Totum Wealth, Zhang served as director, investment risk, at
Pacific Life Fund Advisors and vice president, product
management, at PIMCO.