You want to prepare your children to take a greater role in managing your family’s wealth. But are they ready for the responsibilities that come with it?
Successfully managing your family’s wealth journey is about more than investments, business assets and legal documents. It’s also about values, relationships and a shared purpose.
At Perpetual, our Family Office team will work with you to create the blueprint to protect and pass on your family business and wealth. Just as importantly, we will also have the conversations that foster the culture and vision necessary to maintain the family wealth for generations to come.
A Family Office structure oversees and centralises the management of your family’s investments, tax, succession and estate planning and philanthropic giving and more. With a multi-generational plan in place to manage your family’s wealth and successfully transfer your business assets and investments to the next generation, you can be confident that you’re setting your children – and grandchildren – up for enduring prosperity.
Securing your family’s future
Are your children ready to manage the family wealth?
Passing wealth to the next generation comes with risk. In fact, over 70% of intergenerational wealth transfers fail1. That is, significant family wealth is often squandered within a generation or two.
The key reason? With no planning or preparation, family members have competing priorities over the family wealth and are unable to manage their new responsibilities. The Perpetual Family Office has wealth education and mentoring services to help your family understand the value of money – and the values which created your family’s wealth.
Read more about having an estate planning conversation with your family.
Protecting your vision and values
You may have set examples on how to be ‘good with money’, or shared stories of the risks and sacrifices you made along the way. When it comes to your family responsibly managing large wealth, however, this may not be enough.
The Perpetual Family Office can help you put in place a family governance plan that enshrines your values, vision and priorities for your wealth. We can also create the legal and financial structures that guide how your family can invest its wealth.
A Successful Family Business – For Generations
As you step aside from the business you’ve grown and a new generation of management steps in, what made the business a success can be at risk. Given what you’ve put in, isn’t it good to know your business is in safe hands?
The Perpetual Family Office and our business advisory firm, Fordham Group, can help develop a shared purpose for your family, clarify roles and establish standards of performance that will ensure a successful business transition.
When your family shares a common purpose, they will play an important role together to manage and grow the family business.
Leaving a charitable legacy
Family philanthropy can be the ultimate expression of your family’s values and support for your community. It can also be a wonderful way to keep multiple generations connected and pass on those values from generation to generation.
Setting up a charitable trust or foundation and involving your family members is also a tangible opportunity to demonstrate how investment portfolios work, how to manage risk and shows how wealth can be preserved for the long term.
Find out more on philanthropy with impact
Set your (grand)children up for success
Throughout your working life you’ve looked after your family. It’s a natural instinct – one that doesn’t change when you retire and move through the next stage of your life. But finding the right balance when providing for your children can be difficult. Will your children and grandchildren appreciate the unique opportunities they’ve been given? Will life be too easy for them?
The Perpetual Family Office can help prepare the next generation to become responsible stewards and managers of the family wealth, with respect for the value of money. With the right conversations, planning and implementation, your family will be able to make the most of their opportunities for generations to come.
Meet our clients
Bill Cook
Like many successful business owners, Bill is constantly facing the challenge of integrating his decisions around business and personal finances. Another layer was added to that set of challenges as he looked to protect the legacy of his business, provide for his children and secure his own future.
The successful solution to Bill’s challenge was a Family Office structure – a powerful and integrated suite of services delivered by Perpetual and Fordham, a specialist part of Perpetual.
Where are you on your journey?
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Managing wealth
- Strategic financial advice
- Investment advice & management
- Income, savings & debt management
- Personal insurance
- Tax & accounting
- Health & personal injury support
- Family office
- Property management
Exceptional financial advice to protect and grow your wealth. That’s our enduring commitment to you backed by an investment philosophy that has stood the test of time.
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PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT
- RETIREMENT & SUCCESSION PLANNING
- Superannuation & pension management
- Power of attorney & Lifestyle assistance
A post-work paradise takes careful planning. We can help you to structure your finances effectively and create an investment portfolio that protects your wealth without jeopardising your lifestyle.
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GIVING & PASSING ON WEALTH
- Charitable giving & philanthropy
- Trust setup & management
- Wills, estate planning & executorial services
From the creation of your estate plan through to tax-effective giving structures, our team can help you to create a legacy for the people and causes closest to your heart.
Our family office services
Family members can access a wide range of expertise and resources from Perpetual Private and Fordham, including:
We help you create a family constitution, which allows family members to reach agreement and resolve differences on key issues, promoting family unity and reducing the potential for conflict.
Your family constitution is a master document which establishes a framework for how your family will make joint decisions together on family wealth and business. Typically, a family constitution is based on the mission, vision and values of a family, and provides clarity and transparency of roles and responsibilities for family members.
The combined expertise and resources of Perpetual and Fordham offer an unrivalled intergenerational wealth management solution.
Your family can access a wide range of services including:
- Asset allocation and investment management
- Portfolio administration and reporting services
- Tax and structuring advice
- Bookkeeping services
- Bill payment and concierge services
- Insurance advice
- Trustee services
We prepare your family for their role as stewards of the family wealth by involving them in family governance, family council meetings and philanthropic giving aligned to your family values and vision.
We also provide ongoing education and mentoring to help develop their financial skills, including:
- Financial advice and investment education and mentoring services
- Access to well-being programs
- Access to exclusive family office networks and resources
Giving as a family strengthens your family’s bonds and unites different generations through a common cause and vision. Instead of giving separately, we can help you set up and administer a family charitable trust – one that grows your donations through careful investment decisions, so your family can create and leave a meaningful legacy.
Involving your family in a charitable trust also demonstrates the value of saving and investing wisely, as they move closer to being responsible stewards of the family wealth. Our team specialises in:
- Philanthropic structuring
- Grant making
- Trustee services
- Secretariat support
- Impact reporting
OUR ADVISERS – IN THEIR OWN WORDS
“Successfully transferring family wealth or an active business across generations is one of the greatest challenges a family can face. At Perpetual, I help families manage not just their wealth, but also the family’s governance, successional planning and philanthropic connections to ensure the family wealth will endure and prosper for many generations to come”. – Ed Ryan, Partner, Perpetual Private, VIC
Meet the team
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Ed Ryan
Partner, Private Clients VIC
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Ed is a Partner and trusted wealth adviser to families and private business owners.
Ed has over 16 years’ experience in the financial services industry and believes careful planning, stewardship and patience are the keys to protecting and growing family wealth.
Ed's areas of specialisation include:
- Investment management and asset allocation advice.
- Inter-generational family wealth planning and inheritance advice.
- Retirement planning.
- Family philanthropy advice.
Ed is a Certified Financial Planner and holds a Bachelor of Business (Economics and Finance), Bachelor of Laws, and a Graduate Diploma of Financial Planning.
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Clementine Lucas
Manager, Philanthropy and Not-For-Profit Services, Perpetual
Clementine has extensive experience in government, law, philanthropy and the not-for-profit sector. Clementine supports philanthropic clients by creating giving strategies that align with their charitable objectives. She is an experienced grant-maker and understands how effective philanthropy can unlock maximum impact in the communities in which clients seek to support.
Before joining Perpetual, Clementine worked in philanthropic roles for some of Victoria’s largest arts and cultural organisations and was the Senior Adviser to the former Victorian Minister for the Arts.
Clementine has a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Master of Laws (Juris Doctor) and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice.
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Richard Van Der Merwe
Lead Partner
MelbourneBBus FCA FBA Specialist Accredited Adviser.-
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Commenced with Fordham in 1984 as a graduate and progressed to partner level in 1997
Richard’s diverse background equips him to manage the varied needs of his large portfolio of private business clients; from valuations and sales, to taxation and superannuation planning. He has had significant exposure to capital markets, including purchase and acquisition, mergers, valuations, capital raisings, finance and sale of business. He has also been heavily involved in helping clients with succession planning, including exiting via the sale of their business.
Richard has a depth of experience in helping clients manage the transition of their wealth from the business to life beyond the business, including the setup of a family office and is a trusted adviser to families over multiple generations.
Responsible, insightful and understanding, Richard is an important asset to Fordham and his clients.
Industry specialisation: Private businesses, their owners and wealthy family’s.
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Sharon Parker
Lead Partner
MelbourneB Bus (Acc), CA-
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Sharon assists business owner clients across a broad range of industries, helping them to navigate their personal and business wealth journey and weigh up important decisions along the way. She has broad experience in taxation and business with particular expertise in complex tax advice and structuring, planning for succession and retirement and dealing with complex family and community issues.
In addition to working with business owners, Sharon is passionate about leading Fordham’s Indigenous Consulting Team, which is part of Perpetual’s broader service offering to Aboriginal communities. This team provides Executive Office and consulting services to communities across Australia.
Clients enjoy Sharon’s attentiveness, responsiveness, her ability to listen, and to provide targeted and practical advice. She is exceptionally talented at developing strong, long-term relationships, and is known for her ability to communicate complex issues in a way that is easy to understand.
Industry specialisation: Property & Construction, Retail, Native Title
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Your best interests at heart
Earning your trust
Perpetual has been managing, protecting and growing its clients’ wealth since 1886. Among the group of businesspeople that founded Perpetual were Sir Edmund Barton, soon to be the first Prime Minister of Australia and Sir James Fairfax, Perpetual’s first Chairman. They founded Perpetual as a trustee company partly because they needed an entity to look after their family wealth, and their legacies, far into the future.
The founders and early clients of Perpetual had complex lives. They had busy and demanding professional careers, growing families and multiple business, philanthropic and investment interests. Many of these clients wanted help in managing their financial affairs as well as discreetly growing and protecting their wealth for their children and future generations. Perpetual has been providing this service now for more than 130 years – some of our client relationships have spanned beyond five generations.
Trust is earned, every day.
How we work with you
For generations we have supported families as they build and pass on their personal and business wealth. It’s a tried and true approach that starts by taking the time to understand you and your family. When we know your values and what you want for your family, we build a Family Office structure with the services you need.
It is at this point that the breadth of the Perpetual service becomes important. Under one roof at Perpetual, we offer you access to specialists in investing (across all asset classes), business consulting, tax and accounting, estate planning, philanthropy, superannuation, insurance and more.
We also have a trusted network of business partners who can help with other services you need, or we can work closely with your existing trusted advisers.
With Perpetual, your Family Office structure is not ‘set and forget’. We recognise that life has ups and downs and as your family’s priorities and situation changes, we’ll help you stay on track.
Investment philosophy
Our investment philosophy is to protect and grow your wealth carefully selecting suitable investments that reflect the level of risk you’re comfortable with, as well as your investment objectives. To achieve this, we diversify risk across asset classes, within asset classes, across countries and fund managers. We take a long-term approach to investing because we believe quality investments yield benefits in the long run. Our advisers and investment specialists have a high duty of care in developing portfolios and ensuring Perpetual’s stringent quality investment filters are met.
Investment Management page has more in-depth information and insights.CONTACT US
Please tell us a little about yourself and our team will contact you. Alternatively, you can contact us on 1800 631 381 during business hours.
