‘One kitchen, two dining rooms’: How Evalesco and Principal Edge integrated post-merger

Evalesco Financial Services and Principal Edge Financial Services have used a “one kitchen, two dining rooms” philosophy as they integrate two major financial advice brands following a 2024 merger.

The Double Bay, Sydney-based Principal Edge was founded 36 years ago by Bruce Kluk who will stay on as an adviser and director, and both brands will be maintained.

Evalesco Financial Services CEO Jeff Thurecht tells Professional Planner that 2026 has been about executing the transition, moving from the stage of treating it as two business merging to now operating as one business, even if the two public-facing brands continue to exist separately.

“The philosophy we’re working on is one kitchen, two dining rooms,” Thurecht says.

“Bringing the back office together, first and foremost, we’ve already made some good progress on that, and it’s about really making sure we’ve got consistent processes, using the same technology and working effectively behind the scenes.

“From a client viewpoint they’re still going to see the brands and the advisers they know and trust. That’ll be the short-term focus.”

Evalesco switched to Principal Edge’s licensee last April, leaving Australian Advice Network, a self-licensee co-op shared with RFS Advice, Centaur Financial Services and Guide Financial. Centaur also departed the licensee co-op at around the same time last year.

Thurecht will be discussing Evalesco’s transition from being part of a licensee co-op with other practices to going completely self-licensed while navigating the integration of two advice firms at the Professional Planner Licensee Summit on 10-11 June in the NSW Blue Mountains.

Thurecht, chief investment officer Marshall Brentnall and general manager Belinda Marley-Wallace lead the business.

“We will be moving into a new office space in June, we’re bringing the Double Bay office and Bond Street office into one space in the city. We’ll keep a client-facing presence in Double Bay so the clients who are used to seeing people down [still can do so],” Thurecht says.

The merger with Principal Edge has given the firm the opportunity to expand its ideal client set into more high-net-worth, multi-family office space.

“That will be big growth driver in that area, as well as being able to roll out the more holistic advice services to those clients because we’ve got specialist insurance, specialist aged care advice, more robust investment implementation, as well as covering the combination of retail and sophisticated clients now, so we’re well positioned for holistic growth,” Thurecht says.

“We’re getting lots of great inquiries from clients so the growth will certainly be organically focused and then we’ll see if the right opportunities for M&A come up over time.”

At the beginning of last year, Thurecht was the lead adviser on about 120 clients, but that number is now zero as he transitions away from day-to-day advice operations and pivots to focusing on leading the business.

“It’s a little bit weird, first time in 25 years I haven’t been an adviser on any clients,” Thurecht says.

“But I feel really comfortable with the people we’ve got in the team and the process we’ve taken.”

To help with that transition for clients, the firm has always maintained the approach of bringing in two advisers into client meetings.

“Therefore, it’s been a pretty natural transition with client bases over the years,” Thurecht says.

“We’ve had those advisers become more senior, get their qualifications sorted out, get confident in those client relationships, they’ve slowly but surely taken on a bigger role in managing those clients. Then over time they’ve taken on the accountability for those client bases.”

Although Thurecht says he has “zero clients” officially, he concedes he’s still in roughly four or five client meetings a week to help maintain those relationships.

“That’s important for a number of clients and advisers,” Thurecht says.

“Some of those clients have been my clients for 25 years, so they still want to see me, and I still want to see them and I enjoy that side of that.”

Despite stepping aside from the advice process, Thurecht says he will maintain authorised representative status for the foreseeable future, and is still committed to paying the industry fees and maintaining his continuing professional development requirements.

“There’s an element of it not making sense, but it is important for me if something changed… I could still step in and manage those relationships,” Thurecht says.

“Also, if we’re changing or testing things in the business, I like to test it firsthand. As opposed to the adviser saying ‘oh, that didn’t work’, I can go ‘oh really? It worked okay for me’.”