Coming to Australia, almost as safe as houses

Debbie Hudson remembers clearly the moment she and her husband, Graeme, decided to move to Australia.

The British-born Hudson had always wanted to be a nurse because she enjoyed helping people, but had ended up working in finance in Chadderton, in England’s north.

“My husband and I were having a barbecue one lovely evening, which was a rare thing in those parts, and he looked at me and just said, ‘Let’s move to Australia’,” she says.

“And I thought, ‘Yep.’ It was a total whim, we had never been to Australia before but we knew the lifestyle would be better and there would be more opportunities for us.”

Hudson was ready for a change. She had previously worked for a building society in the mortgages and business loans divisions, but most loathsome of all was when she was moved to mortgage arrears.

“It was quite heartbreaking at times because sometimes it involved helping people get on top of repayments and other times it involved taking their house,” she said.

“The final straw came for me when there was a man who had throat cancer and he was very sick and couldn’t pay his bills and the bank was still going to take his house.

“I thought that I couldn’t work at a place like that.”

Tired of the bullies

She took another job with an insurance and pension provider, and moved through the ranks of management.

She grew tired, however, of a couple of bullying personalities in the office and was equally ready to move out of her hometown, which had been the scene of a few race riots.

“Australia seemed like the kind of place where if you worked hard you would be rewarded,” Hudson says.

That was 13 years ago, and Hudson has not looked back.

She took on a role as a paraplanner at ANZ in Adelaide, and gradually worked her way up to an advisor position.

“There were a couple of advisers whom I learned so much from during my time at ANZ,” she says.

“But in the end with the big institutions it is all about KPIs and how much business you could write, and I am just not like that.”

Then the GFC hit and Hudson, in her role as a newly minted adviser, was right in the thick of it.

“I did feel at times as if I was mopping up issues or arrangements that I had not even put in place.”

Set fee for set advice

Craving greater independence, Hudson tried her hand as a salaried partner at a Genesys Practice for more than three years but declined to buy in in the end.
“I didn’t feel like we were on the same page,” she says.

“In the end, Graeme just said to me, ‘Just get off your backside and do it.’ So I went out on my own.

“I was a bit concerned at first because he runs his own business and I thought it would be hard with two self-employed people in the company.

“I wondered how we would pay the mortgage, but it worked out really well and has allowed me to tap into that nurturing side of myself.”

Hudson set up Wealth Fusion in 2012 and determined to make it rigorously unbiased.

“I am a big believer in advice that is not biased – or involves kickbacks – and that is tailored to the client,” she says.

“You are providing a service, you are charging the client a set fee and they know exactly what they are getting for that fee.

“It should be that simple.”

Planner profile Debbie Hudson Name of firm: Wealth Fusion Name of licensee (if not self-licensed): Securitor Years in the industry: 11.5 years in Australia but also worked in the UK in financial services prior to that. Academic qualifications: DFS and ADFS, SMSF Accreditation, ASX (ALPA) Accredited Listed Products. Accreditations: FChFP Professional association memberships: AFA Other memberships: Most Trusted Adviser network; networking association BNI.