Sowing the seeds of planning success

When Lawrie O’Neill was just 15 years old his dream of following in his father’s footsteps as a farmer took an unexpected turn.

One day, while working on his family’s farm near Perth, his father took O’Neill aside and sat him down for a father and son chat. O’Neill remembers his father saying: "I know you’re pretty good on the farm, but there isn’t enough room for the two of us, and I was here first. Best you go out and find yourself a job young man".

For O’Neill, now 41 and one of the principals at Godfrey Pembroke Financial Consultants based in Perth, the decision by his father for him to go out into the workforce has given him access to an abundance of opportunities. Although the childhood dream of spending his days milking cows and riding tractors will always remain with him.

“Back in those days you made your own fun. We used to go and dam up the creek and build up all the water and dig things out of the creek, trap rabbits, drive tractors, shear sheep and play with lambs. I’m the youngest of six, I come from a good Catholic family,” he says with a chuckle.

O’Neill’s first taste of a working career, outside the family farm, began and ended in a matter of weeks. In his late teens O’Neill spent three weeks working in the spare parts division of Ford Motors. Despite this initial setback, at the age of 19, O’Neill moved to Perth’s central business district and joined Bankwest (then R&I Bank).

As well as juggling his work with Bankwest, O’Neill, a keen Aussie Rules footballer, was concentrating hard on keeping his spot with the South Fremantle team.

“Football was the reason I came to the city. I’m a country boy, but I got recruited by South Fremantle team, and they arranged to have me transferred up to the city and got my employer to give me time off for training. It was sensational. All I wanted to do was play footy,” he says.

ONeill's obsession with football continued until his early 30s, when a bad collision damaged his knee ending his playing career. After three knee operations, O’Neill consolidated his losses and went back to his full-time position at the bank.

It was shortly after he returned to work that O’Neill had his first opportunity to move into financial planning, through an industry colleague and friend, Greg Devine.

Devine operated a financial planning business and offered O’Neill a position within his practice. Despite O’Neill's lack of experience in the industry, Devine was aware of his abilities in the banking sector and believed he was capable of making the cross over.

“Greg has been one of my mentors in this business. He’s had a fairly high profile and was the inaugural chairman of the Financial Planning Association (FPA),” O’Neill says.

“He bought the three or four IOFP days, and the insurance and investment adviser body to form the FPA. He’s played a major role for many years in the industry. He’s been a wonderful person to be around from an industry point of view.”

However, as luck would have it, O’Neill began with Devine’s group on October 20, 1987, which just happened to be the same day the stock market crashed. For O’Neill it was an interesting foray into financial planning.

“It was just a case of manage the day as best you can. But it was certainly a great day of learning” he says.

To this day, O’Neill still works with Devine. He says he hasn’t moved around in financial planning, more like financial planning has moved around him.

O’Neill began his career with Devine at Portfolio Planning Services. Roughly five years later Deutsche bank stepped in and bought them out. After working under the Deutsche banner, the group were then sold to the National Australia Bank (NAB) group. NAB has an array of financial services distribution outlets, and in March this year Godfrey Pembroke, the Deutsche bank’s financial planning arm also moved under the NAB banner.

However, despite the changes in office, name and business cards, O’Neill says his group’s business remains the same.

“Greg and I are essentially business partners. And we both sit on the management team of the business in Perth. We have different roles, but we are both managing the business,” O’Neill says.

“I have a set of management responsibilities, involved in the business of financial planning and looking after clients, and Greg doesn’t look after financial planning clients. He’s looking after the businesses,” he says.

The Perth-based operation has a total 32 staff, and 12 advisers. O’Neill says the structure of the practice is that each principal has a team. In his team, O’Neill has two other financial planners, who are directly responsible for the clients.

The delegation of responsibility to the financial planners in his team has lessened O’Neill’s workload, giving him more time to spend with his family and work on other projects on the side.

A typical week for O’Neill begins with taking his sons, Jeremy and Trent, to school on Monday mornings. On Tuesdays he leaves early to go water-skiing. Wednesday afternoon is spent working on plans for his other business, E-Comm Marketing, of which he is a director. E-comm marketing is a promotion business offering rewards program for kids. Thursday is golf day. Fridays O’Neill doesn’t work late. He leaves early to pick the kids up.

“I don’t have a tough week. I have a small number of clients, who are high net worth and high fee-paying clients. And I’ve got my team behind me,” he says.

Even though it looks like he has it easy, O’Neill has been taken through his paces, and earned his stripes. He has more than 20 years experience in the banking and investment and financial planning sector.

He is a registered and authorised lecturer for the Financial Planning Association. He is also a well-known expert in superannuation and retirement planning, airing his views in the past years as a weekly guest of Howard Sattler on Perth’s 6PR Radio. O’Neill was also involved as a joint writer of the Diploma of Financial Planning Unit 8 manual and exam.

He has also received many awards for his commitment to financial planning, winning adviser of the year in 1997, technical merit award in 1998 and business generation award while with Deutsche Bank.

As well as being heavily involved in the financial planning industry, O’Neill has let his abilities stretch into his own community. O’Neill is the ambassador for Arthritis Foundation of Western Australia, as well as a key member of the education forums for Penrhos College, a Perth Secondary college. He has also begun work on an indigenous sports education program.

But at the end of the day, O’Neill says with or without his achievements in financial planning or football he is very settled. He says working in Perth, overlooking the Swan River, and having access to vineyards at Margaret River creates different businesses and lifestyle interests for him. And, with a hint of contentment in his voice, O’Neill says: “life is pretty good”.