Founded in 2018, Peak Wealth Management has experienced a steady organic growth, but it is now exploring a few acquisitions for the first time. The firm counts on founder and financial adviser Andrew Debono, partner and financial adviser Kristian Zuza and they currently have someone doing their professional year at the firm and four support staff.
“While our organic growth has been strong, this is our first strategic foray into acquisitions to help accelerate our expansion and build on our current momentum,” Debono tells Professional Planner.
Peak is in discussions with a few “like-minded” professionals and is specifically targeting “boutique, single-adviser practices – essentially solo practitioners who have built great client relationships but could benefit from a larger support structure”.
But it isn’t only about growth, it is also about mutual value creation.
“We have spent a lot of time building a highly effective operational framework at Peak. By bringing these smaller practices on board, we can apply our proven processes to help scale their operations and significantly increase their profitability.”
Once discussions are finalised and deals are done, the plan is to merge the practices into the firm, and they will operate under Peak Wealth Management’s brand.
“The cultural fit is key here – we are only speaking with like-minded personnel who share our values. By plugging them into our existing framework, they get the operational backing they need, and we successfully expand our footprint,” Debono says.
Becoming a financial adviser
Andrew Debono credits his father, an investor, as one of the influences who steered him towards financial advice. When he was 14 years old, he did a couple of weeks of work experience with his parents’ financial adviser, which he enjoyed.
While studying a double degree in economics and applied finance at Macquarie University, Debono took a casual retail job and realised he had a talent for talking to people.
“I started to realise that the relationship part was one part I enjoy, and also, I’m a very detailed person, being able to put that detailed advice piece with a relationship role, advice is probably the best thing for me.”
Debono started at a small business where he stayed for 12 weeks making cold calls. He then got an interview and subsequently a job at Announcer Group, acquired in 2017 by Infocus Wealth Management.
The role was similar to his previous one but once he got his diploma of financial planning, they were going to license him straight away.
“Most people would go through probably PY then client services then associate advisor and potentially para planner to then an advisor, or some sort of path like that, but I was straight from university to advisor,” he says.
“It was good in terms of pushing my career ahead really fast and being able to then have the experience to open a business. I did that for about five years, and then I left and started Peak.”
Building a self-licensed small financial advice firm
Debono says he has an entrepreneurial mindset and always knew he wanted to have his own business, “or do something for myself and build something that I wanted to build”.
He launched Peak right when the royal commission was taking place. At the same time, while working, he started noticing things he wasn’t supportive of.
“There were still some things that I didn’t quite like, such as having your own funds, getting a clip on that, doing this and then charging an advice fee just never sat right with me. Also, the percentage fees didn’t sit right with me as well on funds under management. I thought all right, let’s try and do this, and we’ll do all fixed fee, keep it nice, clean, transparent, build good long-term relationships, clients will stay with us forever.”
Peak services around 200 fee-for-service clients and has around 100 insurance only clients. The firm focuses on high income accumulators.
“That’s what we see ourselves as, personally. We want to work with people in the same position as ourselves. If I’m telling a client to do something, it’s something that we’ve done already, and we just keep going down that process. And that’s how we kept building a client base, through referrals.”
Benefits of running a small, self-licensed practice
Both Debono and Zuza are authorised representatives under Prosperity Partners, however they are also the partners and holders of the AFSL with Anthony Poole and Tony Lu.
Peak first operated under an Infocus license, then moved on to a boutique-licensee called Vinarc, which was one of the best decisions Debono made as he was able to become a responsible manager of that license and got exposure on what it takes to run a license and how to go about it.
But the four partners also have an external compliance manager who manages it all, “does updates on a consistent basis, gives us our deadlines and when we have to submit things and manages all our policies and procedures”.
“The problem that I found in the past with big licensees is that they can restrict you on which CRM you can and can’t use, and a lot of that restriction isn’t so much about client data or safety, it’s about control,” Debono says.
Running a small firm gives Debono the freedom to call the shots, from the technology and investments he uses to other decision in the business. “We’re even small to the point that we don’t have a big lock-in lease with our office space. If they said they’re going to increase our rent by 50 per cent tomorrow, I can leave and go find somewhere else.
“It also helps us in not having to charge higher fees or try and increase fees on a continuous basis.”
The downside is working longer hours as there is client work but also business work, when staff leaves, that also has to be resolved, hiring new people. It takes a lot of time and effort.
