Crestone is pleased to confirm eight new appointments completed in the latter part of 2019, bringing the total adviser base in the firm to 80.

The appointments reflect a desire to deliver unparalleled insights and investment solutions to clients, and underscore Crestone’s unique owner operated and product agnostic business model as an attractive destination for advice professionals.

Earlier in 2019, Paul Shalhoub, Duane O’Donnell, John Taylor and Elliott Greenberg were appointed as Investment Advisers in Crestone’s Sydney offices. Shalhoub joined Crestone from Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), where he was an executive manager in the private banking business.

O’Donnell, Taylor and Greenberg were previously relationship managers at Credit Suisse Private Banking.  In October, Rachel Etherington joined from a Sydney-based family office.

All will report directly to Michael Tritton, Head of Advisory for NSW and Queensland.

Commenting on the appointments, Tritton said the combination of depth of experience and alignment of interests between advisers and clients were key determinants.

“Delivering the best investment-led offering for clients was instrumental; a focus on client outcomes, an owner-operated partnership, a well-resourced CIO team, some of the best strategic relationships, alongside truly global investment opportunities and a strong governance pedigree really made Crestone an exciting choice for these advisers,” he said.

Jaime Sanqui also joined Crestone’s Melbourne office from a previous role as investment adviser with CBA Private Office. Sanqui reports to Crestone Head of Advisory for Victoria, Adam Ginnivan. In December, Greg Tripis joined from CBA, along with Nick Mandie from Ord Minnett.

The new advisers bring a combined 150-plus years of experience in the ultra-high net worth advisory space, which further adds weight to Crestone’s already strong reputation in the market, Ginnivan said.

“It is a testament to our business model that Crestone can attract advisers of this calibre. Each was looking for specific qualities in their next business opportunity. Crestone was able to clearly demonstrate these attributes, making the decision to join us an easy one,” Ginnivan said.

In addition to new hires, Crestone has promoted a number of its existing staff to more senior advisory positions. Amy Low, Mat Camillieri and Dan Chang have been appointed to the role of Investment Adviser, while William Nason, Joel Edmondson and Blake Single have become Associate Advisers.

Clark Morgan, Vice Chairman and Head of Strategy and Development added, “Being able to hire externally and promote internally says a lot about the attractiveness of our business and the opportunities available to our current employees. Organic and inorganic growth within key client-facing roles supports our vision to be the first-choice advisory firm for wealthy Australians.”

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“The notion that bonds can still have an important role to play in portfolios may surprise many investors—particularly those focused on home-country markets,” said John Taylor, AB’s London-based Portfolio Manager—Fixed Income, while visiting Australia this week to see clients.

“It’s no secret, however, that looking beyond the front door to global bond markets can help investors improve their risk-adjusted returns.”

Taylor noted that many investors have become wary of holding bonds since the global financial crisis, in the aftermath of which interest rates in many developed countries have fallen dramatically and central-bank buying of government bonds has forced yields to record lows.

He added, however, that it was important to understand that “not all bonds are created equal”.

“Although the bonds referred to in media headlines are usually government securities, bond markets are actually quite diverse. In addition to government bonds, they include corporate bonds or credit and other, more specialized, securities, such as mortgage-backed bonds.”

This diversity becomes even greater when global bond markets are taken into account. Global government bonds include those issued by sovereign borrowers in most if not all developed economies and many emerging economies, too.

Typically, this results in a greater opportunity to reduce risk and improve returns, arising from the fact that different countries tend to be at different points in their economic and monetary-policy cycles at any given time.

“This is particularly the case now, when global divergence in policy cycles lies behind much of the volatility being experienced by financial markets,” said Taylor.

“For example, although the Fed is raising rates in the US, Japan is still in the middle of a quantitative-easing programme—indeed, the Bank of Japan recently became even more accommodative by introducing a negative interest-rate policy—and we expect Europe to expand its quantitative-easing programme in March.

“In other words, even if interest rates in one country keep rising, those in other developed markets may fall—and create actionable opportunities for bond investors. The same may be true for emerging-market bonds, yields on which have risen recently, to the point where some reversion to more normal levels might be expected.”

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