Financial advice businesses, Eureka Whittaker Macnaught and Blue Harbour Financial Partners will merge in a move the companies say is designed to deliver scale and efficiency benefits, career opportunities for employees and a strengthened value proposition for clients.
Formed in the 1960s, EWM has offices in Sydney, Central Coast, Newcastle and Brisbane, and provides holistic goals-based advice. It recently expanded its offer to include finance and mortgage broking.
Blue Harbour Financial Partners, established in 2002, is based at Cleveland in Brisbane and specialises in superannuation, retirement and estate planning.
A statement from both companies says the combined entity will employ 32 people, including 14 financial advisers, across five locations. It will continue to trade under both EWM and Blue Harbour in the short term.
Greg Cook, co-founder and Chief Executive of EWM, says the deal unites two “…like-minded businesses of comparable size to form a large, integrated firm with significant scale, capability and capacity.”
The combined entity will have one management team, under the leadership of Cook and General Manager Sally Bell “…with a clear vision to build a strong professional services super firm.”
…most of the 14 advisers are actively writing new risk business…
Cook told Riskinfo the merged business provides life risk advice as part of its holistic client advice philosophy. Cook is a CFP and Life Risk Specialist and “…most of the 14 advisers are actively writing new risk business. In total we now have approximately $10,000,000 of annual PIF (Premium In Force), and it’s growing.”
Todd Hitchcock, Chief Executive of Blue Harbour, said the group’s merger with EWM would deliver many benefits to employees, advisers and clients including a stable, experienced management team. He will still be involved in the business.
Cook says that EWM has experienced strong growth “…both organically and through M&A, and we have ambitious plans to become a formidable, multi-disciplinary super firm.”
Both companies are part of the AZ NGA group.
