Key Discussion Points

Dear JV Partners,

We were pleased to announce on Friday 3 July 2020 a market update to the ASX on how we have fared throughout FY20 in what has been and continues to be one of the most difficult, unusual, uncertain and challenging periods in the company’s 22-year history. For a full copy of that announcement please click here.

Below I have summarised some of the key takeaways;

As the COVID-19 Pandemic impacts the community and all Prime stakeholders including clients, our team, ‘you’ our accounting firm relationships and Prime shareholders, we seek to continue to deliver advice and services to clients whilst protecting the health and safety of our team, our clients and their business and personal financial circumstances.

Without seeking to lessen or disregard the impact that COVID-19 has had on many in the Australian and Global community we are fortunate to say that the Prime team remains safe and healthy having had a swift migration to work from home in March 2020 all whilst maintaining service and advice standards for clients in a continuous manner. This exceptional effort is a credit to our dedicated team of professionals, their capability and resilience and we thank every team member for their flexibility and continuing dedication to empowering and protecting our clients.

This has also meant that Prime, on an unaudited basis, is forecasting a financial result in line with that guidance provided on 14 February 2020 (Pre COVID-19) as part of Prime’s H1 FY20 results presentation.

Clients & The Community
During the past four months since the onset of COVID-19 many of Prime’s clients in the community have been impacted, whether it be as business owners affected by the lockdown and changed economic circumstances or individuals & family groups with investments and superannuation / SMSF assets that have been impacted by equity market falls and volatility.

Our focus during this period has been to ensure that we continuously provided support and advice on how best to manage through these challenging times by providing comprehensive, proactive, timely and regular advice.

The rapid-fire nature of the change required our team to be ever present, to quickly evaluate and promptly act, this we feel we have done and continue to do very well. Furthermore, as part of our support for clients and the community Prime also created Business Owner, Wealth Management and Superannuation Forums for our clients and people in our clients’ networks to attend free of charge to share important business and financial information and strategies. We are not seeking to overstate the importance of our programs and approach, rather acknowledge the responsibility we felt to provide as much support as possible to as many people as possible.

The Team
Continuing to keep 100% of our team together and focused during a period of significant disruption and uncertainty has been an important part of our future and business continuity strategy and ability to support our clients during a period of very high demand for services. The team’s remuneration (outside of the Board) was not affected during this period. Our team remains our most important asset, and their ongoing commitment, flexibility and resilience in extraordinary circumstances cannot be overstated and we reiterate our thanks.

The Prime Board
During the onset of COVID-19 the Prime Board met regularly, led by our Interim Chairman Mr Tim Carroll and Prime Co-founder and Executive Director Mr Peter Madder along with myself. During this period, the Prime Board worked closely with the leadership team to formulate and manage a comprehensive plan to maintain Prime’s momentum, support our team and clients and deliver value for our shareholders. Part of this plan incorporated the Board reducing its remuneration by 10% from April to June 2020.

Tim Carroll extended his tenure as Interim Chairman providing continuity and leadership and this support has been valuable and appreciated. Having successfully navigated and positioned Prime strongly to weather future challenges and maximise opportunities for growth, Tim Carroll is resigning from his role as a Director of Prime, effective today (3 July 2020), to focus his attention on his other business interests. At the same time, Peter Madder is taking this opportunity to announce his succession and retirement as an Executive Director of Prime, effective end of August 2020, moving to a role of special adviser in a part-time capacity from 1 September 2020. Peter Madder’s vision for Prime and entrepreneurial spirit have been the hallmark of the Prime culture which will continue as we grow Prime for the benefit of all stakeholders. The Board thanks both Tim Carroll and Peter Madder for their leadership and vision.

Today (3 July 2020) I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Matt Murphy and Mr Tim Bennett to the Prime Board as Executive Directors. Matt Murphy leads Prime’s Accounting & Business Advisory division, a material contributor to Prime’s earnings, and is personally an accomplished business adviser and accountant. Matt has been with Prime since 2016 and is a member of the leadership team and is an important part of Prime’s vision as ‘One Connected’ professional services firm. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Matt Murphy to the Board today, for more information on Matt Murphy please click here.

Tim Bennett leads Prime’s Capital & Corporate Advisory division which he established 3 years ago and is now a strong earnings contributor to Prime and an important service for Prime’s Business & Corporate clients, plus those larger family owned and entrepreneur led businesses. As an experienced corporate adviser, business leader and originator Tim Bennett continues’ to form an important part of the Prime leadership team. We would like to welcome him to the Board today, for more information on Tim Bennett please click here.

Collectively myself, Matt Murphy and Tim Bennett will form the three-person board of Prime from 1 September 2020 and I will also assume the role of Chairman, effective today, in addition to my role as Managing Director & CEO. The newly formed board will then seek to appoint an Independent Non-Executive Director to support the future direction of the company and continue to drive the growth of the ‘One Connected’ strategy.

The Future
Although we anticipate future challenges as COVID-19 continues to impact the community, business and markets, we feel we are well equipped to manage through these circumstances with a strong team and business. Our focused ‘One Connected’ strategy has so far withstood these unprecedented times and we believe we have the culture to proactively solve challenges and continue our positive momentum.

We would like to thank our team, clients, ‘you’ our accounting firm relationships and shareholders for their ongoing support.

Simon Madder.

Draft Budgets for FY21

We wanted to confirm that we are currently completing draft budgets for FY21 for our JV Partners which will include all material revenue and expense items.

The prevailing theme and a key focus will be;

1. Is there additional wealth management work / services or funds we can manage for existing clients (the Prime advisory team have and will continue to consider this on a client by client basis for existing clients)

2. Are there current clients that are not paying the minimum fee of $3,850 inc GST ($3,850 inc GST is a reduction on the current minimum fee for new clients of $5,500 inc GST) and what’s the most appropriate manner in which to raise this fee (depending on the size of the client from your perspective for accounting services)

3. The conversion of existing WIP currently in the pipeline and timing

4. New prospects for service that we should list now to approach, the likely fees (for initial work and ongoing) and timing of completion sensitised for an appropriate conversion rate (as not all clients will go ahead)
Key information on each prospective client would include;

– Client name
– Accountant relationship manager
– Key issue, need or aspiration to address for client
– Funds to be managed or insurance required (or both)
– Fees to be charged based on above
– If the client has an existing adviser (only if known)

It would greatly assist with the budgeting process if you could consider completing the above for prospective clients.

In terms of existing smaller clients, please note that we will not just increase fees for these clients without discussion with you (as discussed at the recent Accountant Forum’s) but we are keen to make sure we maintain and grow the margin in the entity and deliver a fairly priced service for clients in an environment of increasing costs, complexity and consistency in client servicing.

We look forward to speaking shortly, but in the in the interim please find following an example of a letter to a client that is currently below our minimum fees and how we try to manage the communications in a respectful manner.
EXAMPLE OF LETTER

Best,
Simon Madder