Center Point Alliance (ASX: CAF) is a financial services firm. The core business is providing licensing services for financial advisors. Centerpoint Alliance also operates its own network of paid consultants. New investment platform – IconiQ, which launched in 2024, is trying to tap into the crowd investment platform space. At the same time, new managed accounts are being rolled out after years of declining interest in Ventura Managed Accounts.
I (Chris Coe) wrote an introduction to the company here in February 2025, so this update will look at recent developments and track how management is progressing with its strategy.
- Expanding the core business of licensed advisors;
- Increase in high-margin salaried consultants and,
- Expanding a more scalable and higher margin investment platform and managed accounts.
Centrepoint Alliance (ASX: CAF) shows growth in licensed advisers.
Centrepoint now has the second most advisers under license in Australia after Entireti. As of December 31, 2025, CenterPoint had 587 licensed advisors, up 14 from July 1, 2025. As of February 20, 2026, 15 more advisors have been licensed by CenterPoint, with 16 more advisors in the process of signing up and onboarding.
If Centerpoint can continue to organically grow licensed advisors, and management can effectively market the new IconiQ platform, Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) and Lending as a service (LaaS), the company could have solid growth. Of course, if revenue per advisor or consultant declines, then it will be difficult to generate much growth.
Centerpoint Alliance is increasing the number of paid consultants.
In June 2026 Centrepoint Alliance acquired two smaller wealth management firms in Queensland, adding salaried advisers. It was a small acquisition with three advisors, which reduced the risk of the merger. Centerpoint already has working relationships with the acquired firms, so the integration should be relatively straightforward.
CenterPoint paid $3 million for $1.5 million in revenue, funded by a new $10 million bank facility, which management has flagged could be used for future acquisitions. The acquisition is expected to add $0.65 million to EBIT annually.
In June 2025, CenterPoint acquired Brighter Super Annual Review Trailbook at a contract value of $977,400, paying $1,221,750, more than 1.25 times. This was also a low-key achievement.
I think there will be a lot of smaller financial advisory firms with principals around retirement age looking to get out of that space, which could provide plenty of targets for Centerpoint. And some of them may be existing licensed counselors that CenterPoint knows well.
During 1H FY2026, paid advisory income was $1 million higher over the prior corresponding period (pcp), primarily driven by the Brighter Super acquisition ($0.6 million), and fee increases ($0.3 million).
CEO John Shuttleworth has touted AI as a structural tailwind that will reduce back-office operations, which are time-consuming in financial advice and costly due to compliance requirements. I think AI will help salaried advisors the most. SMAs are already automated in most aspects, which is why advisors use them. I agree that AI will help rather than disrupt financial advice. I don’t think humans are ready to completely trust AI to manage their life savings. People will still want human connection, and someone to hold accountable when things go wrong.
IconiQ Investment Platform and Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs)
The new investment platform IconiQ is being used by 55 early adopter advisors as of February 19, 2026, with $79 million in funds under administration (FUA). In the first half FY2026 webinar, CEO John Shuttleworth confirmed that the $1 billion in SMAs in the ‘pipeline’ has real commitments from transfer firms and that ‘the money will move.’
Separately managed accounts (SMAs) are on the rise with new offerings. First Choice Managed Accounts (FCMA) and IQ Portfolios from Centrepoint. As of December 31, 2025, funds under management (FUM) were $501 million, up 51 percent from December 31, 2024.
The chart below shows the total funds managed by the platform and SMAs. VMAPS are the original SMAs operated by Ventura, which have seen a reduction in FUM from 2021. FCMA and iQ portfolios are new offerings (launched in 2024) that are growing. The new SMA offerings are also available on six investment platforms including, BT Panorama, Hub24, and Macquarie.
Managed accounts are a growing sector among advisors, due to time and administration savings. Investment platforms with managed accounts take care of corporate actions, rebalancing, compliance, reporting etc.
Distribution of non-core debt collection business
Since my last update, CenterPoint has spun off the non-prime debt collection business. Management kept lending as a service component, effectively outsourcing aggregation to Astute, while maintaining the back book of revenue, and still being able to provide lending services to advisors. Management wants to focus on core segments while still being able to offer lending services to salaried advisors. The transaction is expected to be earnings positive, with Centrepoint exchanging gross revenue for Astute financial advisory margins, delivering ~$0.4 million annualized EBITDA from FY27, including reduced labor costs.
Does Centerpoint Alliance offer a share price?
Centerpoint Alliance’s dividend has been consistent over the past four years, and the current fully implied dividend yield of 7.9% is cumulative to 11.3%. This profit is steadily and organically growing based on the core business of licensed advisors.
Centerpoint Alliance’s net profit after tax has been relaxed over the past few years due to tax asset in FY24 and tax payment in FY25, which means the dividend payout ratio was 116% of NPAT, so to give a smooth context the chart below shows normalized free cash flow (FCvids v) in recent years. FCF excludes acquisition costs. In recent years, the dividend payout ratio has remained stable at around 60% of FCF.
EBITDA guidance for FY26 is expected to be 11% higher than FY25 and with NAB’s debt to fund the Cairns Wealth and Pinnacle Wealth acquisitions, investors can reasonably expect the 2026 final dividend to be in line with the last two years.
Source: Centerpoint Alliance Annual Reports, author’s calculations.
Directors Linda Fox and Martin Pretty bought shares worth $37,000 and $27,750 respectively on the market in early June.
While financial businesses are not identical, P/E ratios in the mid-teens are roughly in line with other ASX smaller financial services firms with salaried advisers and platforms. The company expects FY26 normalized EBITDA to be slightly up on FY25 with a range of $11.75 to $12.25 million (FY25 normalized EBITDA was $10.6 million).
Although it is a slow growth business, it is growing nonetheless.
Since my last update, licensed advisors have grown, salaried advisors have grown, and new SMAs are attracting funds. It’s early days for the platform, and I’m mindful of the risk that it won’t gain traction as quickly as expected. Platform adoption is a bigger step for an advisor than putting client funds into a new SMA on an existing platform.
I (Chris Coe) continues to hold CAF shares for dividend while patiently waiting for share price growth from potential platform penetration and growth in high margin paid advisors, platforms and SMAs. The price is below the October 2025 high, but the long-term strategy is on track.
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Disclosure: The author of this article, Chris Coe, owns shares in CAF. Claude Walker, the editor of this article, does not own shares in CAF. Neither the author nor the editor will trade C79 shares for at least 48 hours after the publication of this article. This article is not intended to form the basis of an investment decision and is not a recommendation. Any statements that constitute advice under law are general advice only. The author has not considered your investment objectives or personal situation. Any advice given is authorized by Claude Walker (AR 1297632), an authorized representative of Ethical Investment Advisers Pty Ltd (ABN 26108175819) (AFSL 276544).
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