Drew Meredith

Membership partnership with Wattle and ASA

Wattle Partners (Wattle), a leading financial planning firm specialising in retirement-focused advice, has announced a strategic partnership with the Australian Shareholder’s Association (ASA), Australia’s largest not-for-profit shareholder association.

This partnership aims to strengthen financial literacy and empower Australians to make informed investment decisions.

As part of this initiative, all new and existing Wattle clients will receive complimentary ASA membership, aligning with Wattle’s goal of equipping Australians with the financial knowledge needed to navigate the investment landscape and fostering a robust, and informed investor community.

ASA membership provides Wattle clients access to a wealth of valuable resources, including investor education programs, community events, and advocacy initiatives that champion investor rights and financial literacy.

This partnership follows the successful amalgamation of the Australian Investors Association (AIA) with ASA in November 2023, under the leadership of Wattle Principal Jamie Nemtsas, then acting chair of AIA.

Recognising shifts within the financial industry, Nemtsas guided the merger to strengthen the collective groups mission of improving financial literacy and investor advocacy.

Wattle Principal, Drew Meredith says: “We are always looking for a way to educate our clients, and by forming this partnership with the ASA, our clients will receive the best investment resources and education.”

ASA CEO, Rachel Waterhouse says: “For over 60 years, ASA has served as the voice of retail investors in Australia. This first-of-its-kind partnership with Wattle and launching the ASA Financial Advisers Directory Panel enables us to reach a broader audience, giving more Australians the resources they need to navigate the financial landscape and make empowered investment decisions.”

Launch of ASA Financial Adviser Directory

As part of the initiative to work closer with financial advisers, the ASA has launched a Financial Adviser Directory, which will provide a partnership between financial advisers and the ASA in each state.

Nemtsas has agreed to introduce financial advisers to ASA for potential addition to the Directory and Nemtsas has agreed to consult with an ASA selection committee which will decide on additions to the Directory. The advisers will exemplify professionalism, show ethical leadership, and a commitment to financial literacy in Australia.

The advisers will cater to the diverse needs of ASA members, ranging from those in the wealth accumulation phase to retirees, and high-net-worth investors.

In addition to supporting ASA members, directory advisers will contribute to the broader financial literacy objective by providing educational content through articles, podcasts and conference presentations.

This initiative underscores ASA’s dedication to fostering collaboration and delivering tailored resources that elevate the financial capabilities of its members and the wider community.

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Manias joins Wattle Partners with a decade of financial planning experience under his belt, working across several boutique financial planning practices in Victoria.

Jamie Nemtsas, Partner and Director at Wattle Partners says: “We welcome Renato to our group at a time when the financial planning sector is undergoing an overhaul. We know that our clients today want good advice — which can be more easily measured.

“Our firm continues its growth trajectory and having exceptional talent on board is key to our success. The acquisition of the highly respected independent asset consulting firm Atchison Consultants last year shows we are committed to run a better, stronger business that provides better outcomes for clients. In conjunction with Atchison Consultants, we seek to deliver enhanced outcomes,” he notes.

“We believe financial planning is a client centric business and we want to ensure we have the very best team to help our clients achieve their long term goals,” says Nemtsas.

“We look forward to Renato working closely with our clients across a wide range of areas covering the formulation and implementation of complex financial advice,” adds Drew Meredith, Director and Partner at Wattle Partners.

Manias holds a Master of Financial Planning and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), having achieved the highest score in the CFP program in 2021 and was the winner of the FPA Gwen Fletcher Memorial Award.

Manias says: “I am very excited to work with the team at Wattle Partners. The firm stands out amongst the peers with its proud history and its determination to continue Austin Donnelly’s legacy of being a strong advocate for tailored, client-centric advice for our clients that always puts their interests first.

“I look forward to providing meaningful contribution to the financial well-being of our clients,” says Manias.

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Drew Meredith

Jamie Nemtsas and Drew Meredith, directors of Wattle Partners, a self-licensed, boutique financial advisory firm have announced the acquisition of the highly respected independent asset consulting firm Atchison Consultants.

Founded in Melbourne in 2001 by Ken Atchison, Atchison Consultants is renowned for offering investment consulting across the financial services industry, including areas of asset and investment consulting, research and portfolio construction advice for institutions, foundations, financial advisory firms and other professional investors.

Atchison Consultants Principal and industry leader, Ken Atchison, will continue to head the group for the next three years.

There will be no operational changes to the business, with Atchison Consultants to continue operating independently of Wattle Partners. Jamie Nemtsas and Drew Meredith will become non-executive directors.

The acquisition provides Atchison Consultants with additional resources to continue developing its capabilities in an evolving research and consulting industry. A capital infusion will be made, investing further into the highly regarded in-house analytical team, and seeking to bring together parts of the fragmented industry.

The investment comes after Wattle Partners has spent several years seeking to partner with an external asset consultant to assist in further professionalising their growing business. It was through these extensive due diligence discussions that the partnership arose.

The trend for financial advisory groups to engage external experts like Atchison Consultants has been growing in recent years as the industry deals with additional critical issues like governance and due diligence, notes Mr Nemtsas, Director and Partner at Wattle Partners.

Mr Nemtsas says: “The past five years has seen a proliferation of new wealth-focused asset consultants. However, some of these groups lack the necessary depth and breadth of knowledge, experience and stability. This creates a real opportunity for well-resourced and experienced asset consulting groups seeking to establish themselves as industry leaders.”

Drew Meredith, Co-Partner and Director at Wattle Partners adds: “Asset consulting groups servicing wealth management firm sometimes lack the understanding of what advisers do and how they can help the adviser run a better, stronger business that provides better outcomes for clients. In conjunction with Atchison Consultants, we will deliver enhanced outcomes.

“We are looking through an adviser’s lens to see what impact a full-service asset consultant can have on a firm managing other people’s capital. It is this approach we will take to fully utilise the skills and knowledge Atchison Consultants bring to the table in our own business, such as building and maintaining model portfolios, APLs, asset allocation, governance and tactical expertise to improve client outcomes,” says Mr Meredith.

Mr Atchison says: “I am extremely excited about this transaction. I have known Jamie for a long time and his depth of knowledge and commitment to client outcomes is very impressive, and Drew is one of the best strategic thinkers I know in the financial advisory industry. It also gives me a succession plan in an industry that is rapidly changing.”

Kevin Toohey, Principal at Atchison Consultants adds: “Our team remains committed to servicing our existing clients and we are excited at the opportunity for further growth.”

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Angela Ashton

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt very heavily in investment markets, and the fluttering of the black swan’s wings has certainly disconcerted income-oriented investors.

The latest ‘Partner Series’ video discussion from ETF Securities  explores the Australian addiction to dividends. The discussion features Angela Ashton, founder and director of managed account provider Evergreen Consultants, and Jamie Nemtsas, director at independent financial advisory firm Wattle Partners.

The experts agreed that typical income strategies based on bonds became harder to justify as interest rates ground lower in the 2010s in the wake of the global financial crisis. Income-seeking investors were effectively forced up the risk curve, toward corporate bonds, high-yield bonds, cash-generating real asset investments, and the share market.

In particular, the income aspect of share dividends – turbo-charged by Australia’s dividend imputation system – became a major attraction, with effective yields in the 6%–8% range readily available.

For this, investors had to accept several facts: one, that the dividends cannot be considered certain until they are paid; two, that dividends are paid at the company’s discretion, and can be cut at any time – even abandoned; and three, that they bore the capital risk of the share market.

All three of these facts, particularly capital risk, have forcibly reasserted themselves as COVID-19 became a fact of life in 2020. The danger in holding ANZ Bank, for example, for the dividend yield, might have seemed largely dormant – until it was halved in price inside a month.

“As interest rates have come down over the past decade, we’ve had to change the way that we look at income; it’s become quite driven by growth assets,” says Angela Ashton.

“Having the central part of a portfolio with respect to income production in growth assets like property or shares introduces a lot more risk, unfortunately for clients, but that’s the way you need to generate income today,” says Ashton.

While some of the “traditional buckets” that have produced income in the past are under pressure, Ashton says there are opportunities in areas such as diversified credit, some Australian REITs, some Australian and US ETF equity-income products, and high-quality Australian shares – particularly consumer staples names such as Woolworths, healthcare stocks and infrastructure stocks.

Jamie Nemtsas expects income-conscious investors to take a more ‘total-return-oriented’ approach going forward.

“High income is generally more risky, and ‘sustainable growth’ looks less so at the moment, if you think in terms of total return. You might be looking at a regional building company in New South Wales that has got a strong dividend, on paper; but it’s going to be far better to hold something like Google that has got a massive audience, low cost of capital, great balance sheet, and you’re sacrificing some kind of regular income for a very, very strong company.”

In this strategy, Nemtsas says, the investor is looking to “harvest” capital gains, and put them back into an income-producing bucket. “A growth story like CSL, you can sell portions of that holding, for years, and keep putting it into cash. Then you have another stock – it might be Amcor –that is trading sideways, price-wise – but it’s generating income.”

It simply comes back to rebalancing, he says. “Say you have 5% cash, 10% fixed-income, 30% Australian equities, 20% global equities, and 35% real assets. If you rebalance regularly, and your Australian equities has moved to 34%, you ‘harvest’ that 4%, and put it back to cash. Your capital gain is constantly being converted into your ‘core’ capital, which we like to have sitting there as effectively three years’ worth of cash needs.”

Nemtsas agrees that areas such as consumer staples, healthcare stocks and infrastructure stocks – and what he calls “fallen angel” sectors like travel – offer good opportunities at present. “There are also some great opportunities in credit, particularly in the ‘distressed credit’ space.

“We’re looking at a range of individual investments, some stocks, some ETFs, particularly where we think they’ve been oversold, to set up portfolios for the next few years,” he says. “We’re getting the opportunity at the moment to build portfolios totally differently than we were eight weeks ago. But we’ll stick to that rebalancing strategy – sell those that go up, keep those that go sideways while yielding income. And think in terms of total return, not in terms of maximising your income return,” he says.

Watch the video discussion.

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