(Pictured: Rob Keavney)

Rob Keavney, a leading light in Australia’s financial planning industry for many years, has died after a long illness. An enthusiastic commentator and industry participant, the business Keavney and his wife Glenese started, which became Centric Wealth, is now one of the largest of its type.

After running their own practice, Investor Security Group, Rob and Glenese merged in 2002 with Pillemer & Agranat, a company founded by Michael Pillemer and Roy Agranat, to start a massive expansion and aggregation phase which extended for more than a decade.

The following year the ProVision and Thorpe-Apps financial planning businesses joined the fold, and a year later a home lending business, Home Packages, and then Howarth financial planning business joined.

The business was renamed Centric Wealth in 2005, acquired the Berkley Group financial planning business, and gained offices in Brisbane and Canberra as well as Sydney and Melbourne. Further acquisitions followed, in 2006 and 2007, including the PKF financial planning division.

In all, Centric represented the acquisition of, or merger with, a total of 37 different firms.

Venture capitalists CHAMP bought a controlling stake in 2009 and various management changes followed before the appointment of Phil Kearns as chief executive, who was tasked with finding a buyer or organising an IPO. Centric was acquired by Findex Group in March this year, becoming one of the major independent dealer groups in the country, and CHAMP exited its investment.

Keavney, who died on December 18, aged 62, is survived by Glenese and children Melinda, Anna and David.