Perks Private Wealth & Wotherspoon Wealth

Perks Private Wealth and Wotherspoon Wealth are two like-minded businesses. Culturally, we share the same values of innovation and a client-first approach.

Strategically, the move also makes a lot of sense for us given the disruption occurring in wealth advice in Australia. By joining forces with Perks, we can tap into a greater pool of resources, enabling us to elevate the level of advice and the offerings we can pass on to our clients. Our clients will benefit from their dedicated in-house research team, greater compliance controls and access to unlisted assets.

When Wotherspoon Wealth changed its name from Astute Investing in the early days there were many suggestions, including brainstorming sessions and brand consultant input, but in the end it came down to a simple suggestion from staff: "You both [John and Simon] have excellent reputations, so why not just use your name?" 

And that's what we did.

The Wotherspoon name has worked well for many years, and we think our reputation can still be front of mind in the merged Perks Private Wealth group. 

As a Director and active member of the FPA (Financial Planning Profession), we anticipate Simon Wotherspoon will continue to provide thought leadership and insights under the Perks Private Wealth name. Also from a logistic standpoint, our Wotherspoon Team will operate under the Perks Private Wealth AFSL (Australian Financial Services Licence), so this solution is also the most simple and transparent for everyone.

No.  Perks does not receive commissions from any investment product.  A good example of this is the commission that gets rebated on the Macquarie CMA accounts, which would continue.

Where investment product commission is unavoidable but still in your interest, it is received and rebated.  This only typically happens where you have an investment product set up by a previous advice firm and subsequently taken under advice by Perks.  Then, commission is rebated.

Similarly, any ‘stamping fees’ that may be offered will be rebated to you by Perks.  Stamping fees are typically paid on new ASX listings (like the Magellan Global Trust (MGG)).  Just as Wotherspoon Wealth did, Perks rebated this 1% stamping fee/commission.  It’s certainly not common practice, yet it is another clear value Wotherspoon and Perks Private Wealth share.

Unlike Wotherspoon Wealth, Perks can receive life insurance product commission, though all of our clients with such insurances will still have their commission rebated or excluded from their policies.  Insurance can also be offered on a fee-for-service basis by Perks. 

It is worth noting that the question of commission or not for life insurance is still unresolved by the regulators.

No. Your current service agreement with Wotherspoon Wealth remains intact until your next annual review.  There will be no change to fees during this period.

As part of our normal process, we’ll schedule an annual review with you at the appropriate time and agree on the service for the following 12 months.  There is no change to that process.  As in all of our annual reviews, we will consider your fees and whether there is need to make changes.  The merger does not in itself create the need for a review of fees.

Perks Private Wealth have a fee model that is used by advisers as a guide to set appropriate fees for each client.  The Perks Private Wealth Fee model produces a very similar result to the model that advisers use at Wotherspoon Wealth. 

In summary, your fees won’t increase due to differences in the fee models.  The only reason to increase your fees at your next annual review is if your agreed service changes with more work to be done.