Commonwealth Bank-owned Count Financial has its first Head of Practice Development with the appointment of Judy Clark to the role last week.

Ms Clark joined Count in April after working at BT Financial, AM Corporation and Skandia. She will focus on support for new practices joining the group, each of which will receive 12 months coaching under Count’s new approach to business development.

Count is built largely on franchises and added nine new financial advisory practices and 24 new authorised representatives to its books in June.

It has also renewed its distribution agreement with BT Financial in a move that allows it to continue to use the BT Wrap investment platform which provides investors access to managed funds, shares and insurance products from a wide range of originators.

Count CEO Dave Lane says BT has agreed to reprice its wrap products under the new deal, which he describes as an “excellent outcome for Count advisers and their clients”.