BT Financial Group (BTFG) has changed the way it charges Westpac financial planners for using BT Wrap, after advisers complained the wrap was available cheaper to independent financial planners.

The chief executive of BTFG, Rob Coombe, confirmed the wrap pricing for Westpac planners had recently been “;unbundled”; to itemise transaction costs and the like, but that the total cost had never actually been higher than for independent dealer groups. “;When everything’s bundled together you get a headline rate that looks higher, but the reality was they weren’t charged differently than anyone else,”; he said yesterday. A Westpac financial planner claimed to I&T News, on condition of anonymity, that when BT took control of Westpac’s 500-plus branch-based advisors in June 2005, it moved the dealer group on to BT Wrap at a price greater than what other similar-sized dealer groups paid.