In a new category, Western Australia’s Perry Lelati of Pi3 has been awarded Hillross New Adviser of the Year.  

The Hillross Awards Program recognises advisers and advisory firms across the country for their high levels of professionalism, wealth management expertise, customer service and business efficiency. 

For Hillross Managing Director Hugh Humphrey the awards are a chance to recognise the high standards of professionalism across the Hillross advice network. 

“All our nominees have contributed the highest levels of service and quality advice to their clients, while contributing to the wider community and the profession as a whole,” Mr Humphrey said. 

Adviser of the Year
Hillross Adviser of the year David Heyworth has been a Hillross adviser since 2005 and joined Edney Ryan Wealth Management in 2008. 

Mr Humphrey said Mr Heyworth was a deserving winner and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from his client base is testament to this. 

“David upholds the highest of professional standards and manages to carefully balance the needs of his existing clients while growing his business for the future,” said Mr Humphrey. 

Advisory Firm of the Year
Mr Humphrey said Hillross Horsham receiving the Advisory Firm of the Year award showed how quickly the practice had become a significant part of the network.  Formed in 1990 and formerly part of the IRIS group, they joined Hillross in 2011. 

“Hillross Horsham is a focused and energetic practice with a commitment to delivering the best client experience possible, along with ensuring ongoing staff development and strong involvement in their local community,” Mr Humphrey said. 

New Adviser of the Year
Mr Humphrey said the new category was introduced in response to strong growth across the Hillross network. 

“After joining Hillross 18 months ago, Perry has worked on growing his business while also demonstrating outstanding commitment to clients – with a strong focus on the client experience – as well as to the local community,” he added. 

The awards are open to financial advisers with a Certified Financial Planner qualification and advisory firms across the Hillross network.  The winners are determined by an expert panel of industry representatives, including Mark Rantall, Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Planning Association (FPA).

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Experts’ Choice is a range of wholesale managed funds employing a multi-manager approach to investment management. 

Hillross Managing Director Hugh Humphrey said the $1 billion milestone was a great result in a tough market. 

“It’s a significant achievement to reach $1 billion in FUM for the Experts’ Choice Funds range which has proven to be a very attractive investment option for advisers to offer their clients,” Mr Humphrey said. 

“The Experts’ Choice Funds have grown from $500 million at the end of 2008 to more than double its size over a challenging period that included the global financial crisis and continued volatility in investment markets. 

“Despite the volatility, efficient portfolio construction has delivered clients reduced risk and more consistent returns. While the funds have a primary focus on maximising longer term return outcomes, the portfolio construction approach also has a strong focus on capital preservation,” said Mr Humphrey. 

Launched in 1996, the flagship Experts’ Choice Balanced Fund has outperformed its benchmark over one, three, five, 10 and 15 year periods. All other 8 Experts’ Choice Funds have also delivered excellent relative performance outcomes.

The Experts’ Choice approach blends investment strategies and styles to produce an investment outcome that performs well in most market conditions.  It offers clients balanced, conservative and growth investment options and access to a range of asset classes including Australian equities, international equities, emerging market, fixed interest, property, infrastructure and cash. 

The Experts’ Choice Funds are open to all investors via a range of administration platforms including North, PortfolioCare, Personalised Portfolio and Macquarie Definitive Wrap.

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Launched at the January 2012 Planner conference, Hillross has introduced new apps for advisers to download and use as engagement tools in client meetings. Apps can be used for quoting or provide simulation software, or scenario planning that help ‘picture your tomorrow’ so clients can understand where they are and what they need to do to achieve their goals.

Below are the eight recently introduced apps, designed to assist planners with the scoping of advice, gathering data about clients and illustrating various advice strategies. Additional apps for client engagement will be launched later this year.

• Home Loan calculator – designed to determine the minimum weekly, fortnightly or monthly loan repayments required for a specified borrowed amount over a selected period. Calculations can be performed for both ‘Principal and Interest’ or ‘Interest only’ loan types.
  Insurance needs calculator This calculator is intended to provide broad guidance on the level of insurance cover required to meet debt obligations and replace a portion of income in the event of death, TPD or temporary disablement.
• My Money Choices budget planner  –  designed to help clients to assess their current financial situation, and to give them some idea of the amount they can afford to invest. It provides for a perfect opportunity to engage consumers not currently seeking financial advice.
• My Money Choices scoping tool – this application leverages the highly popular scoping wheel and scoping pads which are currently available for use in hard copy format. The application allows planners to annotate segments of the My Money Choices wheel and to commence Fact finding with the client and records details electronically in the electronic scoping pad.
• Picture Your Tomorrow – a client engagement approach to help more Australians own their tomorrow, by first picturing it. It is a way of linking a client’s future desires with a financial plan for today. The iPad app is designed to emotionally engage new and existing clients visually. It has been designed to complement your existing advice processes.
• Risk profiler – contains the standard risk profiling questions from AMP’s Fact finder. It is designed to assess a client’s attitude to, and appetite for, investment risk. The profiler allows the client to provide answers to questions to determine the most appropriate investment strategies to match their investment risk profile.

• Super contributions calculator – designed to compare the effect on take-home pay and superannuation accounts of either making contributions to super using salary sacrifice or from after tax salary.
• Super simulator – designed to work out how much an individual may need to retire and whether they are on track. It is intended as an educational tool, helping the individual to see the long-term effects on their superannuation of the things they may be able to control, and that could have an impact such as the age at which they will retire; their investment mix; and making extra contributions.

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The annual event, held this year at the National Gallery of Australia, recognises advisers and advisory firms across the country for their high levels of professionalism, wealth management expertise, customer service and business efficiency.

Adviser of the Year
Jonathan’s ability to look out for the client’s best interests and challenge the way things are done caught the judge’s attention. Professionalism and acting in an ethical framework are at the heart of every client decision for Jonathan who is a Senior Financial Adviser and Principal at Arrive Wealth Management in Sydney.

Hillross Managing Director, Hugh Humphrey said: “Jonathan’s depth of experience and qualifications combine to provide clients with ‘holistic’ financial advice. It is great to see how every year brings another level of advisor professionalism in financial services. The awards’ recognise the great work our advisers are providing.”

Jonathan is a Certified Financial Planner with the Financial Planning Association and a Chartered Accountant Financial Planning Specialist. In a challenging year for financial advisers, Jonathan’s approach has been instrumental to Arrive Wealth Management success with growth now at pre-GFC levels.

Firm of the Year
Arrive Wealth Management SEQ has maintained its exceptional levels of customer service and financial advice excellence winning the Hillross Firm of the Year award for the second year running.

“Arrive Wealth Management has set the bar high for customer service in financial services. Building strong relationships with clients and performing regular reviews keep clients coming back. Every aspect of its advice and how it has set up its business is the standard all financial organisations should benchmark against,” Mr Humphrey said.

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Hillross Managing Director Hugh Humphrey said the appointments were an important step for Hillross as it pushed forward with its growth strategy.

“As affluent clients can have more complex needs, our practices value localised, accessible support from Hillross. We are confident we now have the capacity and scalable resources to broaden our adviser network across the country.

“Our investment in these newly created roles highlights our commitment to our face-to-face adviser network and ensures they have access to local expert knowledge to help them grow their businesses and realise their ambition.

”The 12 adviser network roles are based in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney, with a larger team in Melbourne to support South Australia and Tasmania. One of the Brisbane based roles has been filled by AXA’s former Investment Research Manager, Hamish Trumbull, who now takes on the role of Business Partnership Manager in Queensland.

Mr Humphrey said Trumbull’s appointment was a good example of how the benefits of bringing AXA and AMP together can create new opportunities for employees within the merged entity.
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“Hamish brings a wealth of experience to his new role. As well as representing AXA on a number of investment committees and research assignments, he has extensive experience coaching advisers on advice, client retention and new business opportunities,” he said.
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The other key appointments are:
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Monique Moore – Head of Financial Planning, Victoria, South Australia & Tasmania

Monique has joined Hillross from Suncorp where she held the position of General Manager Gold Coast since 2009. Having spent more than a decade with GE and Wizard, Monique’s experience of growing and managing businesses is a great fit for the Hillross growth strategy and licensee development.
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Robin Memory – Business Partnership Manager, Tasmania & Victoria

Robin has spent the last two years consulting to financial planning businesses, and has experience working with financial advisers within NAB, MLC and Securitor. Robin supports a panel of Hillross advisers in Tasmania and Victoria.
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James Grant – Business Partnership Manager, South Australia & Victoria

James has worked within investment banking and finance, consulting to small and medium sized businesses. In working with KPMG and more recently in his own management consulting business, James has helped clients to grow their businesses and manage their risks and challenges. James supports a panel of Hillross advisers in South Australia and Victoria.
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Elwyn Moyser – Business Partnership Manager, Western Australia.

Elwyn will be returning to her home town of Perth, having worked as a business partnership manager for AMP financial planning in NSW before she left to run her own advice & consultancy firm Vida Private Client Services. She has a strong relationship management and practice development background, with over a decade of financial services experience having also worked for MLC & AFG Financial Planning.

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