Adam van de Water attributes his success to hard work; the support of his wife, Mel; and growing up in a small town just north of Adelaide.
“Being a country boy is a part of it,” he says. “I think when you grow up in the country, it makes you very humble.
“I think it keeps you real. Country people have an innate ability to bring things back to Earth and treat everyone as equals.”
It has certainly helped van de Water relate to his clients. The country boy from rural South Australia has just won the inaugural award for Apogee Adviser of the Year, based on client feedback, business performance and level of engagement in the Apogee community.
“It is very humbling,” Van de Water says. “But you don’t go out to win awards; you put your head down and work hard and that’s the focus.”
Van de Water never knew what he wanted to do when he left high school, but a short-lived IT degree helped him work it out.
“I didn’t last long at the IT degree as I knew, even at that age, that there wasn’t enough client interaction for me,” he says.
He worked for the Bank of South Australia for a while, before taking a job with ANZ, where he worked as a teller, in lending, and in customer service, “honing his skills” in a range of areas before moving into the department that would prove life changing: financial planning.
“It took three goes at the job before I finally got into the planning division,” he says. “It was hotly contested, but I was pretty determined.”
The right job, at last
Van de Water spent six years in financial planning with ANZ, from 2000 until 2006, and knew from the first day that he had found the right job at last.
“It was just this innate, gut feeling that I was in the right role,” he says. “It’s a very hard thing to describe, but I think you know it when you experience it. You just become unconsciously competent at what you do.”
Van de Water left ANZ after six years to start Brava Financial, right at the time he and Mel were planning their wedding.
“I remember sitting around the dining table with Mel and saying, ‘Look, I know we are getting married this year, but I want to go out on my own with no income and no clients,” he says, with a laugh.
“It was very scary, but the moment she said, ‘I’ve got your back,’ everything fell into place and I haven’t looked back.”
These days, Van de Water’s practice is built around relationships, and he spends a bit of time early on getting to know what drives his new clients.
“The first meeting is about finding out what they want to achieve in life,” he says.
“For most people it’s not actually a Ferrari; they want the same thing that most people want: happiness and health.”
Never-ending improvement
Van de Water says his team is driven by their own ‘CAN I’ principle: Constant And Never-ending Improvement.
“I never have the sense that I’ve made it, but rather have a constant desire and discipline to get better,” he says.
He also encourages clients to take a long-term approach to their finances.
When Trump was elected, for example, he didn’t receive one email or phone call – panicked or otherwise.
“I think that comes down to client education,” he says. “They know that before Trump was Brexit, and before that, in 2000, we had the dotcom crash and these kinds of events will occur, but you must take a long-term approach.
“We tell them to watch the TV with interest, but never with fear.”
Planner profileAdam van de Water Name of firm: Brava Financial Services Name of licensee: Apogee Financial Planning Years in the industry: 16 years. Academic qualifications: Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning Professional association memberships: Member of the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Other memberships: Board member of the Apogee National Board, member of the SA State Advisory Council. |
