Professional Investment Holdings (PIH) financial advisers have voted in favour of the merger with premium funder Centrepoint Alliance.

The complex ownership of PIH saw four separate motions on the merger with votes from ordinary, A Class, Z Class and Redeemable Preference shareholders.

These shareholder classes passed the merger proposals mostly with 100% approval.

The proposal will now go to the Federal Court for approval, and if this is passed PIH shareholders will receive 1.4921 Centrepoint Alliance shares for every PIH share.

At this stage Aviva in the UK will still hold a 20% stake in the merged entity.

The insurer bought the stake in PIH for about $25 million some years ago in a move to maintain the relationship between the dealer group and its Navigator investment platform.

NAB declined to buy the PIH stake when it acquired Aviva’s Australian operations last year.

PIH has been involved in a number of court cases regarding its investment advice involving collapsed property group Westpoint, and is facing possible actions about advice given to clients on agribusiness managed investment schemes.

It’s understood Aviva will sell its stake at some point, although dealer group values have been falling with the uncertainty regarding income streams in the future as a result of the banning of commission on financial services products from 2012.

PIH has more than 1000 financial advisers in Australia, making it the largest independent dealer group in Australia.