Client Story: Dr Sui Yu

Since migrating to Australia in 1988 to escape China in the wake of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Dr Sui Yu has forged a successful career as one of Australia’s first genetic pathologists.

Through sheer grit and determination, she is now recognised as a global leader in the field and has made significant contributions to its practise and research, including discovering the cause of the genetic developmental condition, Fragile X Syndrome.

Since 2004, she has served as the Deputy Director of the Department of Genetic Medicine at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which is around the same time that she began working with her long-time accountant and Perks Director, Andrew Craig. “Andrew came recommended to me by a colleague as an accountant with a specialised understanding of the accounting requirements of medical practitioners,” Dr Yu said.

“Over the past 15-plus years, we have developed a very close working relationship which is founded in trust – I know Andrew is always looking after my best interests and he has always stuck to his promise which is really important to me.”

While Andrew has been with several firms over the journey, he joined Perks in 2017, bringing with him an experienced team which has further strengthened the company’s accounting capabilities and its specialised offering to medical professionals.

For Dr Yu, the move to Perks has paid dividends, as she now has access to a higher level of strategic private wealth advice, whilst ensuring that her trusted accountant, Andrew, remains right by her side.

“Before we came across to Perks, there were several aspects of my finance that needed sorting out but were in the too hard basket.”

“In particular, my superannuation was very complex as it was spread across a Self-Managed Super Fund and Super SA. I also have foreign property investments tied to my super, which proved a major hurdle when it came to tax time.”

“Pleasingly, the team at Perks were able to sort out this legacy issue quickly and professionally by consolidating my superannuation into one account, while ensuring that my property interests were protected and managed accordingly.”

Beyond superannuation management, Perks has also helped Dr Yu put in place a more holistic private wealth strategy, including establishing a Family Trust and consolidating the management of her property portfolio. She is also in the process of becoming one of the firm’s first users of Xeppo, Perks’ proprietary cloud-based software application, designed to give clients a full-view of their portfolio in real-time.

“Perks have really helped me to simplify what was previously a complex portfolio, while also identifying and unlocking some substantial savings measures,” she said.

“For example, we recently restructured my loan repayments for my investment property portfolio, which has enabled us to come up with a significant saving that was not previously identified.”

“I am also excited to be one of the early adopters of Xeppo; Perks have been really supportive during this process to ensure that I understand everything and can deride the most benefit from the system.”

For Dr Yu, the demonstrated professionalism and acumen of the team at Perks have given her confidence that her wealth is being managed more holistically and according to her unique needs.

The key thing for me is that I need to trust that an adviser is operating in my best interests and I am pleased to have found that with the team at Perks.

“Obviously, I still work very closely with Andrew as he has been by my side for more than 15 years, but it has been helpful to engage with other advisers at Perks to implement those additional services that complement my needs.”