Our Structure

Our firm is an Australian private company that is wholly owned and controlled by its staff. Our firm’s primary focus is upon managing our clients’ financial assets, rather than the marketing of our services. Consequently, we strictly limit the number and type of clients that we serve, have no sales or marketing employees, and pay no inducements to promoters of our services. Our compensation for investment products is received in a completely transparent fee structure, and we do not seek payment – in any form – from any party other than the client. In the few instances that we are forced to accept payment from a provider in order to access the desired product, this amount is credited to our client.

Our People

As a representative of myFinancialAdvisor, Nathan specialises in providing investment and superannuation advice. Prior to founding the practice in 1997, Nathan held executive positions with a number of leading Australian and International companies including CS First Boston and Lauder Investments (manager of the Estee Lauder family wealth). During that time he was active within the areas of mergers and acquisitions, equity research, and funds management. His academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Queensland, and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University. Nathan is also a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a Justice of the Peace.

As an Authorised Representative of mFA, Carl provides clients with insurance, superannuation and investment advice. Prior to joining mFA in January 2017, Carl had 10 years experience in the UK financial services industry – working within retail branch management for Halifax Bank of Scotland and then as a Financial Planner with Lloyds Banking Group. Carl holds an honours degree in International Relations and an MA in Global Security, both from Keele University in the UK. Carl also completed the Australian Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning in August 2017.

Sean was initially appointed as myFinancialAdvisor’s IT software development contractor in 2008, with an emphasis on the ongoing development and maintenance of our client financial reporting software. In 2016, Sean commenced full time employment with us, and now manages the entirety of software applications utilised by our firm. Sean was born and raised in South Africa, where he gained specialist experience in the financial services sector as an IT General Manager and Consultant with Mercantile Bank over the period 1993 to 2003. Sean emigrated to Australia in 2003 and continued employment within the IT sector as a contractor. Sean holds a number of certifications and qualifications relating to IT product usage and development.

Judy, who had been employed by myFinancialAdvisor since 1997 as both an advisor and the firm’s Business Manager, ended her full-time role in November 2010. Since that time, Judy has been retained on a part-time basis for ongoing and one-off projects.

Our Approach

For the management of financial assets, we focus upon providing appropriately tailored advice that optimises our clients’ long-term financial outcomes. We undertake our own investment research and concentrate upon only a very small number of investment opportunities that satisfy our strict requirements. We do not transact often within client portfolios, given that long-term strategic considerations – both for the client and for investment markets – are usually not subject to frequent alterations. However, when any change is required, we move quickly to reposition the client to the preferred portfolio structure.
Typically, we will recommend Investment Managers for exposure to equity markets. We seek Investment Managers who have proven track records of significant long-term out-performance and have structured their organizations so that significant long-term out-performance should continue in the future. Alternative – usually higher risk/return – investment opportunities are also considered if appropriate to each client’s specific profile.

Our Advantage

Our firm’s performance-based business structure and operating strategy are the two critical advantages that allow us to optimise our clients’ long-term financial outcomes. These two key differentiators shield us from the following structural impediments that plague the financial advisory industry:

  • The provision of financial advice is dominated by groups that are controlled by investment product providers. The independence of advisors associated with these groups is conflicted when recommending the best solution for their client.
  • Many advisors receive some form of compensation from investment product providers, whether it be salary, one-off or ongoing commissions, other cash payments, or payments in kind (such as paid travel, gifts, or low interest rate loans). Again, these practices conflict with the advisor’s independence when making recommendations to the client.
  • The wide use of upfront fees and commission fosters a transaction mentality, rather than the required focus on the achievement of superior long-term investment returns at acceptable risk levels.
  • The ongoing aggregation of the industry reflects the desire of advisory groups to achieve “economies of scale” from their operations. As firms become larger they tend to become highly dependant upon a committee-based decision process, thereby allowing bureaucratic and political dynamics to stifle independent and creative thinking. The usual result is that opinions are forced to regress to the conventional norm, and consequently, the key client issues of performance and service often recede in importance to the internal objectives of growth and stability.