Luke Towers

Succession Matters Managing Director and Succession Adviser Adam Smith has announced Senior Adviser Luke Towers has been appointed Partner with the Perth based insurance advice business.

Established in 2013 by Adam Smith, Succession Matters has been helping individuals and business owners to secure their futures with frameworks and solutions that safeguard income, wealth transfer, principal exit / succession and continuity aspirations. Succession Matters joined national risk specialist AFSL Bombora Advice in December 2022.

Commenting on the Partner appointment, Adam Smith said, “I could not be prouder of Luke for his dedication to providing clients the highest standards of advice and service, as well as his personal commitment to ongoing professional and personal development displayed since joining the practice.

“The Partner appointment has provided the foundation for the continuity of the practice. It also reflects the commitment of Succession Matters to provide business owners with quality planning strategies, in particular focused on unforeseen contingencies that may result in the involuntary exit of a business partner.

“Furthermore, since joining the practice, Luke has played a key role in the growth and success of Succession Matters, and will continue to do so as a Partner”.

Luke Towers joined Succession Matters in October 2020. Prior to joining the practice, he was an insurance adviser based in Perth with Capital Partners Private Wealth Advisers.

Luke responded, “I am excited to be a Partner in a practice that is going from strength to strength, helping clients address an important topic that we are passionate about.

“It’s a privilege to be trusted by clients as we protect their business interests and family members, utilising insurance funding strategies. I’m looking forward to working with fellow Partner Adam Smith as we continue to develop and deliver solutions for clients and their advisers”.

Adam Smith affirmed that Succession Matters believe in the value of specialisation, and collaboration with like-minded financial planning practices is paramount.

He said that the Partner appointment was affirmation of the firm’s commitment to creating career pathways and opportunities for advice practitioners / principals to join or consider a strategic alliance.

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Adam Smith

Leading wholesale trading platform AUSIEX, a part of NRI, has partnered with online trading and investment specialist Saxo Australia to deliver an integrated international trading solution for financial advisers.

AUSIEX said that the wide-ranging partnership will enable financial advisers to directly trade and own international equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) across multiple markets and in multiple currencies.

AUSIEX Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Salis said: “After an extensive search, we are delighted to announce we are collaborating with Saxo, a global leader in international trading solutions, to leverage their proven technology and domain expertise and jointly deliver a highly scalable, ‘best of breed’ international trading solution for advisers.”

Mr Salis added: “Our aim is to complement and enhance our capabilities as a proven wholesale trading platform, and ensure it continues to be a leading solution for advisers, brokers and self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) by not only enabling advisers to trade international equities alongside domestic securities, but also benefit from integrated news and research, trading tools and reporting capabilities.”

Mr Salis concluded: “This partnership will help Australian advisers better service investors, strengthen their client propositions, and improve practice efficiencies.”

Saxo Australia CEO Adam Smith said: “Saxo Australia is delighted to support AUSIEX’s expansion into international equities markets. Like AUSIEX, Saxo Australia is an Australian broker backed by a global financial powerhouse, and we anticipate this being the start of a long and fruitful partnership.”

Mr Smith added: “It’s never been more important for investors to diversify their holdings across geographic regions and asset classes. Saxo Australia’s partnership with AUSIEX will enable financial advisers to do just that for their clients, using market-leading, user-friendly investment technology and infrastructure.”

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Adam Smith

Saxo Markets, the leading Fintech provider of multi-asset trading and investment services, today added Exchange Traded Options (ETO) over shares listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) to its online platform. This complements the existing 1,200+ international options that are already available on the Saxo platform.

“We are incredibly excited to be able to provide our clients with even more choice on the platform now via the addition of ASX listed single stock options, which complements our international stock options offering. With the current market volatility and general mood of uncertainty with the economy and society, we have not only seen an increased level of client activity as well as trading volumes, but also a demand for more content and choices to help them make more informed decisions. For traders and investors who are looking for enhanced risk management and equity portfolio strategies, ETOs serve as a powerful tool for hedging risk and generating income on ASX shares,” said Adam Smith, CEO, Saxo Markets Australia

Available on SaxoTraderGO and SaxoTraderPro now, ASX ETOs offer the following benefits for investors:

• Diversification: ETOs allow clients to build a diversified equity portfolio for a lower initial outlay than would be the case if they purchased the shares directly. Saxo is offering ETOs over stocks ranging from BHP to WOW, thereby providing a way for clients to diversify and complement their existing portfolios.
• Potential yield enhancement: Clients can elect to sell options to earn additional income over and above dividends.
• Risk management: Options provide opportunities to trade in bull or bear markets. ETOs are a powerful tool for equity portfolio protection. Options can be traded without the investor necessarily having to exercise them. Put options, for instance, allow clients to hedge or insure against a possible fall in the value of the shares they hold and can be sold prior to expiry in order to take a profit or limit a loss.
• Low cost of entry: Saxo offers competitive commissions on ASX ETOs from AUD 1 per lot. In addition, as options require lower initial outlay than the underlying assets themselves, clients can more efficiently deploy their investing capital.

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Adam Smith

For Australian investors, this past year’s returns in global equities have been much higher than even their wildest hopes as the S&P 500 surged 29 per cent in US dollar terms, marking its best year since 2013.

Looking back at a very positive year for investors, Saxo Markets announces the most traded individual stocks and ETFs among its Australian clients in 2019 as well as the most popular current holdings.

Adam Smith, Saxo Markets Australia CEO, said: “Even though 2019 was characterised by high geopolitical uncertainty around the US-China trade war and Brexit, this did not drag on the long-term performance of global markets. Many who exercised patience between tweets and headlines throughout the year were very well rewarded.”

Most traded securities among Saxo clients in Australia in 2019

* By number of trades

The most-traded ETFs among Saxo clients were broad-based ETFs. Most of these securities were ETFs with overseas exposures with the exception of the most traded ETF – the Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF (ASX: VAS). 

Top current holdings among Saxo clients in Australia*

* By number of clients with open positions in Jan 2020

Currently, the top five individual stocks holdings of Saxo’s Australian clients are all international tech companies, and none are listed in the local exchange. Globally, some of these individual stocks were also among the most traded ones in Saxo Bank clients during 2019.

“Interestingly our Australian clients no longer seem to have a local bias when it comes to long-term stock holdings as they can see the opportunities that abound in international equity markets, particularly the US,” said Mr Smith. “However, interest in local names does remain strong with ASX listed stocks becoming more actively traded,” he added.

“What’s happening with ETFs is a little different. There’s a bit of cross-over between the most traded ETFs and the most popular long-term holdings because there’s just a lot of buying in this space. Australian investors have been bulking up their portfolios with broad-based ETFs, a trend that is likely to continue for many years still.”

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Doug Morris & Adam Smith

Saxo Markets, the multi-asset trading and investing specialist, and Sharesight, a portfolio tracking and tax reporting service provider, have announced a new partnership to deliver an integrated recordkeeping service for self-directed investors.

The Open Banking-like initiative, integrated through an open API, will allow Saxo clients in Australia to create share trading summary reports with one click.

Through the joint solution, investors will be able to easily obtain personalised reports for both performance tracking and tax reporting purposes, including capital gains tax reports and dividend income reports, as well as benchmarking insights to track against the market.

Saxo Markets CEO, Adam Smith said: “Our integration with Sharesight is a natural fit as both of our companies are committed to providing self-directed investors with tools that are often only available to professional investors.”

“This integration also makes tax reporting easier for our clients, providing a seamless solution to reduce the ongoing burden of tax administration.”

Conversely, the integration with Saxo will expose Sharesight clients to a platform provider offering access to 36 international exchanges and over 40,000 instruments across all asset classes.

Sharesight CEO, Doug Morris, said: “Sharesight clients have tended to have a high portfolio weighting to Aussie shares and are not that exposed to global investing opportunities. Given this local bias, we see our alliance with a Saxo as highly beneficial for our clients.”

An investor trading with Saxo will be able to grant their accountant access to trading records via their Sharesight account thereby streamlining much of the manual work that goes into tax reporting.

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Adam Smith

Saxo Capital Markets, the multi-asset trading specialist, has reinforced the importance of responsible leverage for retail investors trading in Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and Foreign Exchange (FX) in Australia, expressing concern that significant parts of the margin trading industry has not been sufficiently focused on protecting clients’ interests.

Saxo Group has a long-standing commitment to responsible leverage and client transparency. However, the firm has been concerned some providers still offer excessive leverage, resulting in the significant risk of frequent stop-outs, which leads to client losses.

The comments come as new laws have recently passed through Parliament allowing the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) the power to intervene whenever there is a risk of significant financial damage to the consumer. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Design and Distribution Obligations and Product Intervention Powers) legislation has introduced product intervention powers for ASIC effective as of 3 April 2019.

Saxo Capital Markets Australia chief executive officer, Adam Smith welcomed the move by ASIC to enhance protection and bring Australia in line with other global markets.

“We look forward to seeing this new legislation being implemented in a practical sense, which will ultimately bring further protection for Australian traders and investors,” he said.

“While other major markets have moved to cap the amount of leverage brokers can provide to their clients for trading in CFDs and FX, retail investors in Australia are currently being offered leverage ratios as high as 500 times to 1 by major CFD providers, which means the client needs to put up only $1 to trade $500.

“This is an ultra-high-risk position because the underlying stock needs only decline by 0.2% for the clients to lose the amount they invested.”

In July 2018 the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) imposed leverage limits on CFD and FX trading for retail investors in the European Union, bringing Europe into line with similar restrictions in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. Saxo Capital Markets offers 25 times to 1 on the Australian dollar, which is already in line with the ESMA standard.

“Saxo is committed to responsible leverage and client transparency in Australia and across the globe. We have been deliberate in taking a much more conservative approach than our competitors, keeping our clients’ best interests at the heart of everything we do,” he said.

Mr. Smith added that trading with CFD and FX instruments allows smaller retail investors to trade the full global macro cycle, build a diversified capital allocation, and hedge their market exposure in a flexible and efficient way – democratising access options, that have for a long time been largely reserved for institutional investors.

“Protecting clients while allowing them to take a responsible level of risk is important in all areas,” he concluded.

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Adam Smith

Saxo Capital Markets, the leading fintech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investing, has announced the appointment of Adam Smith as its new Chief Executive Officer for the Australian market.

Mr Smith brings over two decades of experience working in the financial services and technology sectors. He joins Saxo from OFX, an ASX listed financial services / technology company, where he was the Chief Operating Officer for the past three and a half years. Prior to this he held a number of senior commercial and operational roles within ANZ Global Markets and Macquarie Bank in both Australia and Hong Kong.

Adam Reynolds, CEO of Saxo Capital Markets Asia-Pacific, said the appointment of Adam Smith would enhance Saxo’s existing market presence and would expand partnership opportunities with other financial institutions in Australia.

“The Australian market is of great strategic importance to Saxo Group. Adam’s proven track- record and broad experience make him well-qualified to deliver our vision and strategy in the region,” said Adam Reynolds.

“We see great opportunities in Australia’s burgeoning fintech scene. Adam’s depth of knowledge will be highly beneficial in driving further innovation and collaboration in the Australian trading and investment community,” he added.

Saxo provides a multi-asset trading and investing platform to private and institutional clients, prime brokerage services, and global markets technology infrastructure for fintech companies and financial services institutions via its Open API.

“For more than 25 years Saxo has strived to democratise trading and investing, providing our private clients with the same tools and market access as those used by large asset managers and financial institutions,” said Adam Reynolds.

“Today we’re dedicated to building relationships with other companies delivering financial services not only as a provider of markets technology but as a true partner who can augment those companies’ value propositions for their clients. Adam will lead our efforts in the Australian market to deliver this vision and share our capabilities with more businesses,” he added.

Adam holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and a Master of Business (Finance) degree from the University of Technology, Sydney.

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The Award is dedicated to supporting and rewarding independent financial advisers who undertake the challenge of acquiring knowledge – and applying this knowledge to their business, their clients, their industry and their community.

AFA National Vice President and Education Chair, Adam Smith, said the Award recognises the outstanding performance and achievements of financial advice students.  “It allows us to shine the light across Australia to identify and recognise some of our country’s best and brightest advisers.”

Mr Smith said the AFA believes ongoing education enables AFA members to deliver better advice outcomes to Australian consumers.

“Commitment to education and lifelong learning are a fundamental part of the AFA’s ethos, so I am very pleased that this year’s national winner of the Excellence in Education Award is Finn Kelly.”

In his former career, Finn spent seven years as an Army Officer in the Australian Defence Force. His military training and experiences were fundamental in helping him develop a broad range of skills. His background taught him the essence of seizing key opportunities, while managing risk to optimise performance and maximise success.

Finn is committed to ongoing education and professional development. His formal qualifications include a Bachelor of Science majoring in Maths and Physics, a Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning), a Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary), a Diploma of Government, and a Diploma of Management. He is currently undertaking the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Program. He is also a strong believer that education is the key to success in any aspect of life.

“We continue to see outstanding talent amongst our award candidates and Finn Kelly is testament to this,” Mr Smith said. “Finn is committed to his profession and his clients and is making a major contribution to enhancing the reputation of the profession as a whole.”

Asteron Executive General Manager Jordan Hawke said Asteron is extremely proud to sponsor the Excellence in Education Award for the fourth year running.

“At Asteron, we have a passion for our industry and ensuring its future success. We believe that the provision of quality advice can be better achieved by continuing to lift the education standard of advice professionals in Australia,” Mr Hawke said.

“Each year, the standard of the nominees makes it extremely difficult to choose just one winner, and this year was no exception, with the closest results we have ever had.

“Finn Kelly stood out throughout the judging process.  The real point of difference was his remarkable ability to translate his past and continuing education into real life application, ensuring that his business processes run to military precision.

“His commitment to also making a difference in the community will make him an outstanding ambassador for education.”

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