SA home loan firm Bernie Lewis expands into wealth management and insurance Stefan Lipkiewicz and Mark Lewis at Bernie Lewis Finance's office at Mile End. Picture: DAVID CRONIN Source: News Limited BERNIE Lewis is one of the best-known brands in South Australia but most of us would not have noticed its subtle name change in recent years. The company has dropped "Home Loans" from its moniker, reflecting its expansion into the wealth management and insurance sectors. It was a transformation engineered by executive chairman Mark Lewis and chief executive Stefan Lipkiewicz, who wanted to diversify the business and importantly assist clients with all of their key financial needs. The business had decided that it didn't want to just be a mono-line home loan business and wanted to grow into other areas. "Mark needs to be given clear credit for deciding that that business model would be far stronger and more sustainable longer term," Mr Lipkiewicz said The business had grown significantly through the heyday of credit growth, in the '90s and early 2000s when credit growth sat between 12 and 16 per cent for 10 to 15 years, compared to the longer-term average of about 4 per cent, where it is today. After researching integrated models from around the world, the company realised that the home loan would always remain at the core, but a holistic wealth management strategy could be offered to complement this service as well. "We came to the conclusion that the most demanded service was always going to be the home loan," Mr Lipkiewicz said, but a broader offering was needed. There is no better time that when you are taking on debt, to review your total financial situation. We see this every day, people come to see us and their super is in disarray, their protection is inadequate or they're paying money for all of these things that haven't been properly structured. Our view is we'd like to look after all of those key needs with our advice team. While many wealth management companies and banks offer such services, Mr Lipkiewicz said that our focus is heavily on client needs, rather than just selling products. We're running what I'd suggest is an advice strategy, not a transactional cross-sell strategy. What we're trying to do is go to the core and talk about all your key needs, what the client actually needs and that's where the conversation starts. It doesn't start with `Maybe you should consider some super', it starts with `where are you going?'  An integral part of the company's transformation was a merger with one of MLC's largest advice businesses in Adelaide, KFG Financial Group. The Bernie Lewis Group now has 30 per cent of total revenue coming from non- home loan services and believes that in time it will reach 40 to 50 per cent. That was one of our key objectives, to diversify the business. And we've done that during the worst five-year period in the history of financial services. The diversification strategy is working well, with Mr Lipkiewicz saying that half of people who take out a home loan now also want a financial adviser. Most competitors in the mortgage space were now replicating the model. Bernie Lewis has also introduced a salaried adviser model for home loans, providing a base salary and bonus structure, rather than the traditional commission-only structure. The salaried model provides us with an opportunity to access a larger pool of talent including younger advisers who would otherwise not enter the industry. We have built our salaried team up over the last three years from a zero start back in 2010, We now have eight salaried mortgage advisers currently writing some $8-10 million per month in loans and managing clients with some $150 million in mortgages under advice and growing. More recently the company added a general insurance advice service, once again taking the choice route and becoming a full broker.