AZ Next Generation Advisory (AZ NGA) today signed a binding sale and purchase agreement to acquire Wealthwise. The agreement includes a share swap of 49% of Wealthwise’s equity for AZ NGA shares and a progressive buy back of these shares over the next ten years. The remaining 51% stake will be paid to the founding partners in cash. This latest agreement follows the recently announced deals reached with Eureka Whittaker Macnaught (“EWM”), Pride Advice (“Pride”), Lifestyle Financial Planning Services (“LFPS”), Financial Lifestyle Partners (“FLP”), Harvest Wealth (“HW’), Wise Planners (“WP”) and RI Toowoomba (“RIT”), Empowered Financial Partners (“EFP”) and is a continuation of AZ NGA’s objective of consolidating high quality Australian financial practices providing wealth management services to retail, HNW and institutional clients in Australia.
Wealthwise was founded by Jamie and Sheila Luxton in 1986 and operates from its Perth base in Western Australia. Wealthwise comprises a team of 32 staff including 14 Financial Planners, 6 para-planners, and 9 Client Service Officers. Wealthwise is responsible for $380 million of funds under advice and provides a comprehensive range of financial advisory services including investment and asset allocation advice, retirement planning, insurance, strategic financial planning advice, and aged care.
Over the past decade Wealthwise has been the recipient of many industry awards including Financial Wisdom Practice of the Year in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and most recently in 2015. Wealthwise has won the Western Australian Practice of the Year for 9 out of the past 10 years. In 2014 the firm won the national advice quality award and advisers Paul Turner and Gus Sadri have won the individual advice quality awards as well. Wealthwise founders Jamie and Sheila Luxton have entered into long term contracts to ensure business continuity.
Paul Barrett, AZ NGA CEO states: “We are delighted to welcome Wealthwise into the AZ NGA family of quality financial planning firms. Jamie, Sheila and the team have always been at the forefront of the financial planning profession in Perth and set a great example to the broader industry. Wealthwise has built a strong corporate business model whilst maintaining a caring and client-centric approach”
Jamie Luxton said, “We are delighted to be partnering with such a forward looking organisation. We believe there will be substantially more opportunity to grow the business, but also to broaden the level of services we provide to our clients, and to develop the career paths and future opportunities for our very talented team”
According to Paul Barrett AZ NGA is on track to achieve its year one target of 12 transactions. He says “We are able to attract high calibre firms due to the flexibility of our approach. We do not require firms to change their licensee arrangements or product platform offering. We are also able to handle a variety of entity structures and enter into very long term arrangements. Our vision is to partner with and invest in qualityfirms to help them achieve their growth ambitions. To be genuine about this you have to have, capital, know- how, and patience.”
AZ NGA announced its first acquisition on May 8th, 2015, when it acquired EWM. This was followed by the acquisition of the Pride Group on May 27th 2015, LFPS on July 15th 2015, FLP on Sept 24th 2015, Wise Planners on Oct 19th 2015, Harvest Wealth of December 17th, RIT on January 29th , EFP on March 1 1016. This latest deal is in line with AZ NGA long term business plan to continue to acquire high calibre businesses. AZ NGA has shortlisted a number of financial planning firms for further potential consolidation.
