We start with you.
Everything about your portfolio follows from here.
Understanding who you are, your goals, your family, your values and your genuine relationship with money, is the foundation every other step inherits. It comes before any discussion of markets, products or returns.
Only once your Lead Adviser has that complete picture does the investment strategy take shape. The portfolio is the outcome of understanding you, not the starting point for it.
Advice comes first, investments follow. Before any recommendation is made, your Lead Adviser builds a complete picture of your goals, your family situation, your obligations and what you need your wealth to do. That sequence is deliberate because the right strategy depends entirely on understanding you first, not on fitting you to a house view of how capital should be managed.
Starting with where you want to be, then working backwards to what your portfolio must do today, is what makes the first conversation with a Lead Adviser different.
These discussions often surface things that have never been put into words before. Not just the level of volatility you can endure, but what a difficult period in markets would mean for you, your family and your plans. Not just the broad return you are targeting, but what you would give up to protect what you have already built.
From that foundation, your situation is profiled in depth before any investment recommendation is made. Your Lead Adviser then holds the broader view across investments, superannuation, business interests and property, ensuring decisions are made with your tax position, your estate plan and your income needs in view.
Where your portfolio connects to questions about intergenerational wealth management, wealth structuring and family governance, or the transition out of a business, your Lead Adviser is already across all of it.
Implementation draws on a broad investment universe. Your Lead Adviser selects managers and products based on independent research quality, ratings and suitability for your specific position, time horizon and objectives.
Where the manager in each asset class is chosen for their capability in that role, the portfolio can draw on global equities, private markets, real assets and specialist fixed income - depending on what your situation calls for.
The investment mandate is then co-designed with you and written in plain English. It records not just what you are invested in, but why, and how you and your Lead Adviser have agreed to respond together when markets move.
The starting point is a strategic asset allocation: a framework for distributing wealth across asset classes, designed to meet your objectives within the level of risk you can genuinely take on. It is built around your specific situation and revisited as your circumstances change. Getting asset class balance right matters far more than the selection of individual securities. It is where much of the long-term performance of a managed investment portfolio is determined.
Your Lead Adviser meets with you regularly to assess whether the portfolio is still doing what it was built to do. That includes a direct conversation about returns: whether performance is in line with what the strategy was designed to deliver, and whether the risk being carried is the risk that was intended. The review process is designed to catch when your circumstances have shifted and respond accordingly.
The work spans your entire balance sheet: investments, superannuation, business interests, property and personal assets. Reporting brings all of it into one view, so you can see how each component is contributing to the overall picture rather than assessing each in isolation. For clients with complexity across multiple entities or structures, this is often where the gaps and opportunities become visible for the first time.
Note: specific tax advice should always be sought from a qualified tax adviser for your individual circumstances.
Many clients arrive with wealth concentrated in one area: a business, a property portfolio, or a long-held share position. That concentration is often how the wealth was built.
Unwinding it gradually, without triggering unnecessary tax, is one of the most important decisions an adviser can help navigate, yet it is often deferred for far too long. It requires planning across the portfolio, the tax position and the broader wealth structure, with enough lead time to execute properly.
A portfolio built without reference to the full financial picture will create problems that are difficult to unwind. These include capital gains liabilities that could have been managed, or assets held in the wrong structure.
At Fitzpatricks Advice Partners, the investment portfolio and the financial plan are held together by one relationship.
This may be relevant if you are:
The common thread is complexity: wealth spanning multiple structures, multiple asset classes and multiple objectives, requiring one relationship that keeps everything aligned.
The right conversation about wealth and portfolio management begins with your objectives, not your current investments. We start by understanding your situation fully: your goals, your timeline and what your portfolio needs to do for you. No obligation, no pressure, fully confidential.