Financial Advisers for High Net Worth Individuals

Because you don’t know what you don’t know: Our team spends every day keeping up to date with the latest tax and superannuation rules, monitoring investment performance, and navigating the service levels of banks and investment providers. For a relatively small cost, our fees give you access to a broad range of expertise and experience at your fingertips helping to uncover cost savings and opportunities you may not have considered. But if there aren’t any cost savings or opportunities we will let you know.

Why do the administration, projections and paperwork yourself? With a full team of advisers and administration staff, we take care of pre-filling and completing forms, making the necessary calls to product providers, and ensuring every detail is handled correctly the first time. This frees up your time to focus on the things you’d rather be doing in retirement, instead of getting stuck in paperwork, projections, research and administration.

Let us worry about your finances so you don’t have to: Investment markets move up and down. Some assets underperform while others outperform. Fund managers can change, increase their fees, or introduce performance fees. At the same time, global factors such as geopolitics, interest rates, unemployment, stock market movements, property prices, or even natural disasters can all impact your finances. Each of these factors needs to be carefully considered and debated to determine the right course of action at any point in time. Let us worry about these things so you don’t have to.

For high net worth individuals, financial planning is often about optimisation rather than the basics. Too often, we see large amounts of cash sitting idle in a self-managed super fund or bank account. The common comment is: “I’ve been meaning to do something with this, but just haven’t had the time.”

Unlike many clients who focus on budgeting and day-to-day cash flow, high net worth individuals usually need advice around estate planning, generational wealth transfer, and asset protection. These are areas where a clear plan, put in place and properly executed, can make a significant difference—not only to current wealth, but to the legacy left for future generations.

A good rule of thumb is over $1 million in total assets.

It’s not always just about having a high net worth, though. Sometimes the need for advice comes from having a complex financial situation, a high income, or even significant debts and risks that need to be managed and insured.

That said, once your wealth grows beyond $1 million, there are usually a wide range of strategies and opportunities a financial planner can help you put in place.

There are many tax strategies available, depending on a your situation. For some, it may be as simple as commencing a pension within their superannuation. This reduces the tax on earnings from 15% in accumulation phase to 0% in pension phase—something often overlooked, particularly in self-managed super funds.

Another common strategy is a re-contribution strategy, which can reduce the taxable portion of a superannuation balance. This helps to minimise the tax payable by non-dependent beneficiaries in the future.

For others, establishing a charitable foundation can provide both long-term impact and immediate tax relief. By committing funds to a foundation in a single year, clients can offset large capital gains tax events, rather than spreading donations over many years.

These strategies, when tailored and executed properly, can make a significant difference to wealth preservation and intergenerational planning.

Asset protection comes in two forms: the investments you choose and the structures you hold them in.

On the investment side, the old saying “low risk equals low return” often applies. For some clients, protecting assets is more important than chasing the highest possible returns. In these cases, we focus on conservative options such as bonds, term deposits, and cash. This might mean shopping around with different banks to secure the best interest rates, or comparing government and corporate bond offerings to find the right balance between safety and return.

From a structural perspective, asset protection can also be achieved by holding wealth in the right entities. For example, using a trust with a corporate trustee and multiple beneficiaries can not only help protect assets but also provide flexibility to reduce tax on income and capital gains. In other cases, restructuring a company may help to cap tax obligations at the corporate rate while providing additional protection.

With the right combination of conservative investments and thoughtful structuring, it’s possible to safeguard assets while still achieving steady growth.

Some advisers can, but not all. Philanthropy and charitable giving can become technical and require specific expertise and experience. There are several different ways to structure your giving, and choosing the right one depends on the purpose you’re trying to achieve, as well as the tax, legal, and long-term implications of each option.

A good adviser will not only explain the differences between these structures but also help you understand the outcomes they can create—so your giving has the greatest impact while also aligning with your broader financial plan.

With a good financial adviser, we recommend reviewing your financial plan at least once a year. Regular reviews are important because both your personal circumstances and the investment environment can change significantly over time.

On the personal side, your adviser needs to understand what’s happening in your life—your family, goals, and objectives. Major events such as a divorce, separation, or changes with children can impact asset protection strategies and may require updates to your estate plan, including the addition of structures like testamentary trusts.

On the investment side, markets are constantly shifting. Annual reviews give us the opportunity to discuss new opportunities, explain current market conditions, and adjust strategies to ensure your wealth continues to grow and remains protected over the long term.