Central to Esencia Wealth’s recruitment and retention strategy is a commitment to creating long-term opportunities for its people, including extending equity ownership beyond advisers. The number of shareholders in the firm has grown from seven to 30 in the past six months, with around 60 per cent of shareholders now drawn from employees who have built their careers within the business. Shareholders span every part of Esencia Wealth including the executive leadership, advice, client experience, operations and growth functions.

Matthew Fenning, CEO of Esencia Wealth, said: “We’ve always believed that the people helping to build Esencia should have the opportunity to share in its success. As the business grows, we want more of our people to think and act like owners because that’s how great organisations are built. Expanding ownership is about recognising contribution, creating opportunity and giving people a genuine stake in what we’re building together. That’s the kind of firm we’re building at Esencia.”

Retention at the firm is at 96% in the past two-and-a-half years, even as headcount has grown from 16 to 64 people in the same period. By comparison, the average Australian organisation loses around 15% of its workforce each year, based on Australian Human Resources Institute data for the 12 months to June 2025.^[1]

Growth built on people

Esencia Wealth’s retention and ownership story sits alongside a period of rapid growth for the firm:

• 175% client growth over two years
• Headcount up from 16 to 64 over the past two years, across advice, operations and support teams
• 26 new hires in the past 18 months, including senior additions such as:
  • Chief Financial Officer, Aphrodite Judi
  • Partners, Mark Aranj and Rachel Barlow
  • Senior Financial Adviser, David Smith
• 11 internal promotions in the past 18 months, within teams across the entire business
• Expansion of the firm’s Advisory Board with the appointment of:
  • Peter Maher (former Macquarie Executive)
  • Glenn Elliott (CEO, Meldus; Co-Founder & Director, Practifi)
  • Fiona Vale (Co-Founder, Humanico)
  • Kate Fuller (Managing Director Sydney, Fuller)

Career compass

Esencia Wealth points to Career Compass as a cornerstone of its people strategy. The framework provides pathways for progression, enabling employees to deepen their expertise, broaden their experience, take on greater responsibilities and advance their careers as the firm grows.

Two recent examples illustrate how the framework plays out in practice:

• Jai Won Ri joined Esencia Wealth as Client Engagement Manager and has since progressed to Marketing Manager, extending her remit beyond client engagement to now playing a leading role in executing the firm’s broader growth strategy. Won Ri was also recently named ‘Esencian’ of the Year.
• Tabitha Wedd joined Esencia as Finance Manager and has since been promoted to Financial Controller, also illustrating how employees can build their careers and take on increasingly senior roles as the firm evolves.

Other recent internal moves reflect the same pattern across the business:

• Jeffrey Wrightson’s role expanded, from Managing Partner to Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer;
• Nina Kazmierczak was promoted from Founder Partner & Senior Financial Adviser to Head of Advice Quality & Risk;
• Three Senior Financial Advisers – Graham Yon, Jane Mitchell and Tyler Ryan – were promoted to Partner & Senior Financial Adviser.

Culture recognised internally and externally

Esencia Wealth measures culture through its internal Motivation & Engagement Index, which the firm describes as “consistently high,” alongside an annual awards program recognising its three pillars of excellence: innovation, client outcomes and a people-first culture. Award recipients include:

• ‘Esencian’ of the Year: Jai Won Ri
• Innovation Award: Samuel Fenning
• Client Experience Award: Vicky Nguyen
• People & Culture Award: Yue Leng

“We believe exceptional client outcomes start with exceptional people. When people build long-term careers, take ownership and grow with the firm, clients benefit from continuity, trust and relationships that strengthen over time. That’s the foundation we’re building Esencia on, as we expand nationally,” Mr Fenning said.

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FOFA debate is holding the industry back: PractFi

The creators of an award-winning client management tool for financial advisers have said that the ongoing regulatory debate distracts advisers from what’s truly important to their business: their client relationships. Additionally, the industry needs to catch up with contemporary standards of CRM technology in order to regain ground lost over recent years.

Co-founder of PractiFI, Adrian Johnstone, said that if advisers harnessed the best technology to manage relationships, engagement between the industry and clients would improve.

“Every adviser wants good relationships with their clients, and the average Australian doesn’t know or care about FOFA. But for those of us in the industry, FOFA has dominated the conversation and our attention for far too long. We’ve missed a huge opportunity for technological advancement in the single most important aspect of our businesses: our client relationships.

Mr Johnstone said that although the wealth industry has typically spent big on technology^[1], the proliferation of out dated, inflexible software is evidence that the industry has fallen behind what’s possible.

“The number one aim of PractiFI is to bring the best of contemporary CRM features to a neglected industry, allowing advisers to strengthen their relationships and improve business management.”

PractiFI is a flexible cloud system that allows anyone who provides financial advice to manage what is most important in their business: their client relationships. PractiFI provides a genuine technology alternative for financial planners, licencees, accountants, super funds, mortgage brokers and insurance brokers.

Co-founder and CEO, Glenn Elliott, said PractiFI is backed by the power of Salesforce, which is the market leader in the CRM thanks to its robust platform and rich features.

“PractiFI lives on the Salesforce1 Platform because it’s the best cloud around. High performing, massively scalable and secure, it just works.

“Salesforce spans the needs of SMEs right up to large enterprises. But for most advice firms, undertaking the necessary customisation is complex and costly. So we’ve used the flexibility of Salesforce to create an advice practice management solution that brings the relationships across a practice’s client base to life. We’ve put the client and everything about them — conversations, calls, file notes, documentation, agreements, advice written, tasks and more — upfront. Para-planning tools and processes, along with the transactional SOA/ROA, are back-office outputs.

“Planning is about so much more than just producing statements of advice, so we’ve created a tool that way around, then wrapped it in a beautiful user experience.”

Mr Elliott said feedback has been extremely positive amongst clients and the Salesforce community. Having tasted success at Dreamforce 2013 in San Francisco for its groundbreaking user experience, PractiFI recently picked up a second award at the OzForce event in Sydney showcasing Australian innovation on the Salesforce1 Platform.

“We set out to create an elegant, indeed beautiful, solution to the task of managing the core business of financial advice: client relationships. The great feedback we’ve received from the industry tells us that we’re on the right track.”

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[1] http://www.afr.com/p/technology/slowing_finance_sector_still_drives_umlJC89rKH8Pgn0iVvIdEN

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