A manager has joined the accounting team and a senior lawyer has joined to expand legal team.

“The 2019 landscape for financial services means that the best people providing the best service at an affordable, transparent price for the consumer is a necessity. We welcome onboard Zachary Sienkiewicz to our accounting team and John Golinelli to assist with the growth of our legal team.

“We integrate service for clients at a high level. This often means the various divisions of our firm meet beforehand to sketch out solutions for client needs and even things that are not yet on the client’s agenda,” said Matthew Kidd, Chief Commercial Officer at Omniwealth.

Zachary Sienkiewicz – Manager in Omniwealth’s Financial Services team
Chartered accountant, Zachary Sienkiewicz, has been appointed as a manager within Omniwealth’s financial services team. Zachary will contribute to modernising the current processes of the financial services team at Omniwealth, he will manage a team of accountants and tax specialists.

John Golinelli joins Omniwealth Law practice
John Golinelli has been appointed to the Omniwealth Law practice. He is an experienced legal practitioner and will assist clients with legal issues across the firm’s accounting, mortgage broking, business advisory and financial planning groups.

He will work in association with Stuart Austin who is managing director of Omniwealth Law.

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“We are excited to have a financial adviser with Richard’s wealth of experience join our team at Omniwealth. Richard has an extensive financial services background spanning 30 years.

“Richard shares our vision to deliver an exemplary client experience across the range of services that Omniwealth offers. I feel that his knowledge as a SMSF specialist will certainly enhance that experience,” said Matthew Kidd, Chief Commercial Officer of Omniwealth.

Richard has 30 years of experience as a chartered accountant and financial planner and spent the last 13 years as a Principal in the financial planning team at Mercer in Sydney. He is an SMSF-accredited specialist (CA).

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Matthew Kidd

An online hub for expatriates to maximise their overseas experience and ensure they capitalise on investments while away has been formed. Expatme is an alliance of companies that provide international support to Australians who are either moving abroad, living abroad or coming back home.

Expatme services cover immigration, tax & accounting, finance, estate planning, property investment, property management, investment management and asset protection. The hub is a combination of the skills of four companies.

Expatme has commenced with four firms that all assist offshore Australians

• Omniwealth (Finance, Financial Planning, Estate Planning, Tax and Advisory)
• Four Points Immigration (Immigration Services)
• Bright Residential (Real Estate – Property Management)
• Milk Chocolate (Real Estate – Buyers Agent)

The market opportunity to assist expatriates came with changes in the Visa system from March 2018. These changes can lengthen the time it takes to process Visa applications, particularly for people wanting to bring partners back into the country. Expatriates will need to rethink the way their applications are made.

“In Australia, there is no existing service for expatriates that brings together so closely everything required to make a move abroad successful, either leaving Australia or returning. Changes to Visas due in March 2018 will impact on the length of time it takes to process Visa applications, particularly for people wanting to bring partners back into the country. Australians working offshore or looking to work abroad will need to rethink their strategy given that it can take up to 16 months if Visas are not applied for in the right order,” said Justin Browne, CEO at Four Points Immigration and co-founder of Expatme.

New Visa laws, longer time horizon for partners, more borrowing rules and tax

There has been a 37% reduction in 457 approvals during the July – December 17 half and that number is on the rise.

Domestic changes in property markets affect the ability for expats to purchase property either for investment or home ownership, making investment from abroad tricky. Bank policy will largely dictate how and when expats can apply for finance. The key is to understand the lenders and what they want.
Tax is the first consideration when relocating overseas or returning home – what the tax implications are and how best to approach the relationship between the Australian and foreign tax systems.

Property is an issue for expats and exchange rates

A 2017 survey by HSBC showed that expats globally held 33% of their wealth in their home country while 52% hold most of their wealth abroad … 62% of expats already own property somewhere in the world, with similar proportions of ownership in host (37%) and home (32%) countries.^[1]

The survey also revealed that 31% of expats see a less favourable exchange rate as one of their main financial wellbeing concerns. Almost half (44%) of Australians currently living abroad have kept their wealth at home compared with only a third
 globally.^[2]

“It is not enough to have a good tax guy but no coherent plan in place for a returning spouse or a strong understanding of the Sydney/Melbourne property markets. Being London-based for three years and returning home needs that same level of planning and coordination of experts as if you were starting a new business,” said

By Matthew Kidd, Chief Commercial Officer at Omniwealth and co-founder of Expatme.

1. HSBC (2017), Expat Explorer: Broadening perspectives, p. 76. Retrieved from: http://www.hsbc.com/-/media/hsbc-com/newsroomassets/2017/pdfs/expat-explorer-global-report-2017.pdf
2. HSBC (2017), p. 48

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Matthew Kidd

Omniwealth is actively seeking more joint ventures (JVs) with accountants given a good experience over the last four years of building successful JVs.

Referring work for clients is essential for all professionals but the problem many accountants fail to consider or simply don’t want to confront is the inequality of the referral.

The accountant referring clients to a planner will not get the same benefit to their business, particularly when selling the practice.

“We believe that referral arrangements need to be developed to a more professional level. JVs seem to produce deeper ongoing activity between both sides. Client disclosure is required by law and explaining a JV arrangement to clients has been quite straightforward for us at Omniwealth,” said Matthew Kidd, Chief Commercial Officer, Omniwealth.

How can a joint venture work?

A joint venture works with the establishment of a new company between referrers, with the proprietary interest owned 50-50. Percentage payment structures can work but often the best outcome occurs from agreeing discretionary sums for each referral.

JV fees are held in a joint account by both parties for full transparency.

Disturbing trends for ‘traditional’ accountants to consider

• There is no doubting that the standard compliance-based accounting practice valuations will drop over the next decade
• Legislation can be crippling for a one dimensional firm, such as more changes to licensing requirements
• Technology is the biggest threat. Cloud-based accountants that employ teams overseas, in countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines, will simply continue to bring the cost of preparing and lodging tax returns down, eventually pricing older style practices out of the market. Traditional accounting software has also been slow to adapt to new licensing requirements handed down by ASIC, leaving Accountants in a risky position.
• Many clients want productive team work between their accountant and financial planner. Many accountants are struggling to combat this requirement as they don’t have the resources to employ an adviser or buy one.
• Accountants referring to outside advisers then they are crazy due to the imbalance of the valuations between the different businesses.

By Matthew Kidd, Chief Commercial Officer

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Matthew Kidd

Diversified financial services group, Omniwealth, has acquired Westminster Finance and Business Solutions to boost its capacity in mortgage and finance services for the firm’s clients.

The Balmain-based broker will relocate to Omniwealth’s Australia Square office over the next 6-12 months. Mr Grima will bring three brokers, two support staff and an established overseas processing team into the Omniwealth business.

“As part of our strategic plan we needed our Mortgage and Finance division to be big enough to handle our forecast growth, and there is no better way than to partner with an experienced and successful business operator.

“We have chosen to team up with James Grima at Westminster as he has a great business that is innovatively streamlined, and can help us deliver on our strategic plan. Like us, Westminster is non-aligned and able to be client centric with no conflicts,” said Matthew Kidd, Group Managing Director of Omniwealth.

Mr Grima sees the move as a good fit for his firm as they gain the opportunity to service their financial planning and accounting clients: “Our broking team developed its own CRM system that touches clients multiple times in a year and we felt ready to outgrow the inner West and connect with more SMEs and professionals/executives.”

“Being able to service a client on all of their professional service needs, without them needing to go anywhere else is paramount to our overall business plan,” said Mr Kidd.

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Matthew Kidd

Diversified financial services group, Omniwealth, has launched Omniwealth Insurance Services to assist business clients with general insurance services.

This new service further extends Omniwealth’s existing suite of in-house financial planning, accounting, business advisory, legal, mortgage broking and real estate services.

Omniwealth Insurance Services is led by experienced insurance broker Anthony Anastasio.

“My team and I are very excited by the opportunity of working with the various departments of Omniwealth and providing additional services to their business clients. General insurance dove-tails with creating good wealth management strategy and the information exchange synergies of working with the existing Omniwealth client base and their in-house advisers.

“Getting the best insurance outcome for an SME starts with a clear picture of their current risk needs, how this fits with the broader family structure and an insight into their future strategies/acquisitions.”

Matthew Kidd, Omniwealth’s Group Managing Director, is pleased to bring general insurance services into the firm.

“General insurance is often overlooked by AFSLs as too specialist but it is essential for advisers to be able to assist SMEs protect their business assets.

“We were fortunate to find Anthony and his team. They bring over 25 years of general insurance experience and have advised across many diverse business segments, from the smallest SME through to large corporates. They will be an ideal complement to our set of advisory staff” said Matt Kidd, Managing Director of Omniwealth.

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Matthew Kidd

Diversified financial services group, Omniwealth, has developed, in conjunction with Republic Wealth, Australia’s only true fully automated investment model (similar to robo advice), called OmniwealthDirect.

OmniwealthDirect takes around ten minutes from opening the account online (this includes a Macquarie CMA and a trading account) to receiving bank account details. The portfolio will be invested as soon as the client’s funds hit the trading account.

OmniwealthDirect clients will experience a seamless application process followed by an investment in a basket of exchange traded funds (ETFs) which are run by the Republic Wealth investment committee. The ETF providers include the largest and most respected in the world like Blackrock, Vanguard and iShares.

Republic Wealth currently operates an array of portfolios from Conservative through to High Growth. The portfolios are mapped to the risk survey that clients complete using well-respected risk profiler, Finametrica.

Omniwealth works in conjunction with Republic Wealth in providing services to OmniwealthDirect. Omniwealth and Republic Wealth are separate companies.

“Automated advice allows investors such as wealth accumulators, High Net Wealth and SMSF’s to passively invest, with their own HIN, locally and internationally at a fraction of the normal cost, due to the lack of third party involvement, such as a financial adviser or broker.

“Non-advised investments such as OmniwealthDirect work hand in glove with advised portfolios as it allows us the ability to service all investors and not just those who can afford direct advice,” Omniwealth Group Managing Director Matthew Kidd said.

Here are some of the key points:

• Accounts can be opened in 10 minutes with automatic investment processes once funds are transferred. A streamlined, paperless approach to doing business
• Processes are all fully compliant with AML and KYC obligations – completed instantaneously
• The process includes metric profiling through Finametrica to deliver algorithmic outcomes for investors
• Investor receives an SOA and MDA agreement at the end of the process providing robo advice, thereby cutting down on human error and embedding consistent compliance outcomes into the process
• Upon completion of registration, investor receives an OpenMarkets or Macquarie Bank trading account and CMA opened in their names
• Investments are held under the client’s HIN not custodian, which means only the client owns the investments
• Funds are invested in ETF model portfolios that are run by the Republic Capital investment committee. The ETF providers include respected market participants such as Blackrock, Vanguard and iShares
• Portfolio performance information is available 24/7 on all devices such as iPhone, tablet through our technology partner Sharesight
• In the US, many Billions USD of investor’s funds has gone into automated advice firms over the last 3 years.
• Investors can set up automatic deposits to build the value of their portfolio over time

“We are certain of the success of automated advice in Australia because of the strong take-up in the US where $30 Billion USD of investor funds have already been placed into large, automated advice models over the last three years,” said Mr Kidd.

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