SFG Australia has acquired Perth-based Parkside Insurance Brokers as part of its strategy to provide a full range of insurance and wealth management services.

Staff from Parkside, which is owned by veteran broker John Deykin, will move into SFG’s Perth office when the merger takes effect on October 1.

SFG was created after the merger of Snowball and Shadforth last year. Apart from the Perth office, it has six offices in Victoria, three in Tasmania, two each in NSW and Queensland and one in SA.

During the past year the group has also acquired two businesses in Ballarat and a Melbourne-based wealth management firm, Jeena Partners, which specialists in family office and high net worth client services.

Last week SFG announced that fees paid on life and general insurance plus mortgage broking rose 12% in the year to June 30.

Total insurance and mortgage fees were $14.4 million, compared with $13.6 million last year.

Financial advice fees fell 1.7%, to $60.1 million from $61.1 million.

SFG reported net operating revenue of $118.3 million, up 2%. This led to a 6% rise in net profit after tax to $28.6 million.

“The group reinvestment in client-facing tools underpins SFG as the leading client-focused, non-aligned provider of advice at a time when consumers are struggling with changes in the financial services landscape,” MD Tony Fenning said.

“The really big trend is clients need professional advice as they become more self-reliant and want to know when they can retire. Fortunately, that is very much at the heart of what we do.”

When the merger was announced SFG hoped to achieve $6.8 million of synergies by the end of the 2013 financial year.

This was revised to $10.5 million and in the 2012 financial year $6.3 million of synergies were achieved, largely due to merging duplicated back-office services, staff cuts and extra revenue from increased scale.