Turbocharging a wealth brand

Charlie Viola, founder of a new private wealth brand, is seeking the “best of the best” when it comes to clients and advisers. 

Charlie Viola set up Viola Private Wealth last month through a management buyout with Pitcher Partners where he had worked for the last 20 years. The team purchased various operational aspects of the business and will maintain a strong relationship with Pitcher, whereby it will leverage Pitcher Partners’ accounting and tax services and provide advice to mutual clients.

Following the management buyout, the team carved out their existing clients from Pitcher’s wealth management division which allowed them to set up Viola Private Wealth with existing assets and clients compared to starting from scratch or facing competition restraints. 

As a result, the firm already has $2.4 billion in assets under management (AUM) and continuity with its clients where there are currently around 200 clients and 450 portfolios. 

The new firm will be run by founding partner Viola, chief executive Sean Ward, and chief operating officer Andrew Levi, and focus on offering bespoke solutions for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and their families.

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Speaking to Money Management, he said: “We want to be known as the best place for clients and for advisers, it’s about being client-centric and we want to be a trusted adviser for high net worth. 

“There is no false economy, we will be charging people to manage their money so we have to provide good investment outcomes and will be judged on that. We are a staunchly high-net-worth investment firm and want to be synonymous with wealth and synonymous with good people and with good investment outcomes.”

Pitcher Partners already operates a wealth management division but is primarily known for its accountancy arm, so Viola felt the only way to “turbocharge” the growth of that division was by breaking off into its own entity.

“That model works for the chartered accountant world and it was very successful, but it wasn’t ever going to allow us to turbocharge a wealth business. We needed the opportunity to create a model and infrastructure that will allow us to have the best possible clients and advisers. The two fields are different worlds and it was important to us to do the buyout if we wanted to have real market penetration within wealth.”

The buyout was funded by Viola and the team, and he said that being able to do that without having to take private capital means the firm can take its time to grow in the future.

“We funded it ourselves. There’s no private equity or family office money, and that means we have the time and patience to find the right people. We want to grow our AUM fivefold, but we don’t want growth for growth’s sake. We have spoken to private equity players and it might be right for us in the future, but not right now. We want to encourage employee ownership.”

Future advisers 

Currently, the firm has $2.4 billion in AUM and two advisers in himself and Peter Nevill, but Viola is seeking to gradually increase that within the next three to four years to 10–15 advisers and $10–15 billion in AUM. 

When it comes to what those future employees look like, Viola said he is only seeking the “best of the best” who are able to bring on their own clients to grow the business. He would rather wait for the right people, he said, than hire someone who doesn’t fit the firm’s culture. 

“You only need to make one or two bad hires to mess the culture up badly.”

While Viola’s established name and industry profile will be able to bring on some clients, he said it is crucial that future staff are able to source their own for the future of the business.

“We want someone who can fish, they need to be able to catch their own clients, they need to have a good investment basis, and they need to be a client-led person who can find and talk to clients. We have great systems and processes in place here already, so the rest of it we can do. 

“We want people who can come and have material, above-average client bases in terms of their fee generation and be able to deal with clients who have got $3–100 million in assets.

“We are already talking to a handful of advisers who we would like to join us, but it’s important to get the best.”

With around 15,000 advisers in the market currently, down from a peak of 28,000 in 2019, Viola admits it is “skinny at the top” when it comes to finding the best ones and that talent retention is the biggest challenge in the marketplace currently. 

It is not about competing with the investment banks and paying potential hires more money, he said, as this can create poor decision-making, but rather making sure they are in alignment with the business over the long term.

“The search for talent is about finding the right people who you can bring into the growth story with you and building a brand that they will choose over the other larger firms.”

Nevertheless, he is confident and optimistic about the upcoming intake of young advisers who are entering the industry now and are unscathed by the Hayne royal commission. 

“We are now reaping the rewards of the royal commission and all the pain everyone went through. We are now in the best possible spot to build this type of business.

“People coming out of university now are better educated, less sales-orientated, and they are more client-aligned about doing the right thing for the client. There’s been a real change in the type of people the industry is attracting. We are seeing people now who previously would have gone into law or accountancy.

“That’s really exciting, knowing I can build this business and bring on really smart, professional people in and teach them because they will be the best advisers.”