Freshwater Wealth to scale up through adviser pipeline

Newly launched advice business Freshwater Wealth is doubling down on its growth strategy as it looks to scale up its adviser footprint and Sydney client base.

Last week, Freshwater Wealth officially launched after first establishing itself in December 2023. It seeks to help high-net-worth (HNW) clients achieve their lifestyle goals and make proactive steps to help manage common financial challenges.

Led by founder and partner Roger Perrett, he brings over 25 years of experience in the advice industry. This includes 20 years spent at Westpac Group’s advice division and four years as an executive financial adviser at Viridian Advisory.

Speaking further with Money Management, the adviser shed light on the journey that led him to launching Freshwater Wealth.

For Perrett, running his own business has always been a desire, previously leading the advice team as an executive adviser at Westpac.

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His ambition, coupled with the rising number of Australians reaching retirement and seeking advice, has led Perrett to seize the opportunity of building up his own advice practice.

Since opening the doors of Freshwater Wealth, the adviser has brought on two advisers and is in the process of hiring additional four advisers.

“With soon-to-be seven advisers, we’re in a really good growth trajectory in terms of increasing our adviser footprint and increasing our client numbers.

“We do have a pipeline of additional advisers who are keen to join, and we’re just going through the processes before making it official,” he shared.

Money Management recently spoke with two advisers on the difficulties and benefits of scaling up and hiring associate staff as a smaller advice business.

While onboarding new staff can present a variety of challenges, it can ease the pressure and workload of other employees. For Freshwater Wealth, this remains a priority as the firm seeks to meet the overwhelming demand for advice in Australia.

Additionally, Perrett reflected on the challenges he faced when going out on his own, describing fear as the biggest obstacle.

“It’s the fear of taking the step from the known to the unknown that is a huge challenge to overcome. In the first six months, there’s anxiety and it is a challenging period managing those emotions.”

One of the aspects which gave him confidence was seeing his existing client relationships stand against the test of time.

“Talking to clients helped me a lot in the process. The more they contacted me after I left [Westpac], the more confidence I received and gained that momentum. I’ve had some clients for 15–20 years and those relationships stood the test of time.”

Choosing the right licensee

Finding the right licensee was an important decision Perrett weighed up in the process of forming Freshwater Wealth.

“We’re in the trust business [as advisers]. Putting everything aside, what we’re here to do is have our clients trust us. So if we are expecting our clients to trust us, we have to choose the right business partners. When it came to choosing a licensee, we weren’t looking for the cheapest – we were looking for one we could trust,” he said.

The advice practice is licensed by Centrepoint Alliance, which has close to 800 advisers under its Australian financial services licence (AFSL) including approximately 500 licensed advisers.

According to Perrett, it was Centrepoint’s structure, strategy and people that led him to choosing the licensee. He also had an existing relationship with Centrepoint’s CEO, John Shuttleworth, from when he worked at Westpac and Shuttleworth was a general manager at BT Financial Group.

“I really like the structure of Centrepoint. They’re ASX-listed, so there’s that extra governance in terms of trust and integrity.”