The head of Asgard’s Sydney metropolitan business development team will soon exit the St George-owned company to take an equity stake in a financial planning practice signed to the Securitor dealer group.

Nick Langton has committed to an equity-sharing arrangement with Gerald Cummings, principal of Premier Wealth Management, and Craig Allen, an accountant with the North Sydney practice, and will begin his tenure at Premier Wealth on September 3. Langton will be responsible for sourcing acquisitions and determining growth strategies for Premier Wealth, which caters for high net worth clients and holds $200 million in funds under advice. He brought Cummings into the Securitor group five years ago and worked closely with him in the following years. “Over the years, the ‘what if’ discussion came about. And at the beginning of this year [Cummings] had put together an offer that difficult to say no to,” Langton said. “I’m not a financial planner, but over time that will be what I’ll do…All three equity owners will be authorised representatives.” Meanwhile, Laird Abernathy, former business superannuation consultant with Asgard, joined Russell as a Sydney-based business development manager in July, and John Meigan, formerly a sales consultant with Langton’s Sydney metro team, joined Vanguard as a business development manager in June. Commenting on Langton’s career move, Geoff Lloyd, Asgard chief executive officer, said the former sales head “has been a BDM and made his way through the ranks”, and had acted upon a good opportunity.