{"id":65814,"date":"2023-05-22T13:46:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T02:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/?p=65814"},"modified":"2024-10-17T14:15:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T04:15:18","slug":"vale-michael-harrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/2023\/05\/22\/vale-michael-harrison\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale Michael Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Highly-respected business strategist and former Synchron Independent Chair, Michael Harrison<\/strong>, passed away in Melbourne on Sunday, 21 May 2023, after a long illness. He was 78.<\/p>\n

Harrison worked closely with Synchron from 2007, when he was appointed Synchron\u2019s business strategy and marketing consultant. He then served as Chair from April 2011 until the sale of the group to WT Financial last year (see: Michael Harrison Departs Synchron<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Michael Harrison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Long-time colleague and friend, Don Trapnell<\/strong>, says Harrison was not just committed to Synchron\u2019s success \u201c\u2026but to the ongoing success of financial advisers, particularly risk-focussed advisers. He deeply understood the financial services landscape and the drivers of change.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tribute from Trapnell, who is former Synchron Chair and now Director of Llenpart Financial, says that in the early 1980s, Harrison established Australia\u2019s first private bank.<\/p>\n

He also served three terms as Deputy Lord Mayor of Adelaide and, over the course of his long career, sat on government and private company boards, including the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

He consulted to numerous clients including Citibank, the STAR Alliance Network, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Zurich Financial Services, where, in 1997, he was charged with the responsibility of reinventing Zurich\u02bcs Australian life insurance business.<\/p>\n

He was also the author of three books, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, and a Life Member of the Million Dollar Round Table.<\/p>\n

…Harrison made an enormous contribution to Synchron, and in many ways helped reinvent the business…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Trapnell says Harrison made an enormous contribution to Synchron, and in many ways helped reinvent the business.<\/p>\n

With Harrison’s help, Synchron transformed into one of the largest non-institutionally owned licensees in the country.<\/p>\n

Harrison was one of the main instigators of the firm\u2019s NextGen bootcamp for young advisers and industry participants, and he and Trapnell went to the UK in 2015 \u201c\u2026to uncover the real story in relation to life insurance commissions in that part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trapnell believes the findings he and Harrison brought back from the UK \u201c\u2026informed debate on the issue of risk remuneration in Australia and helped shape the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison was also instrumental in Synchron\u2019s legal battle against the State Revenue Office of Victoria over the imposition of payroll tax on the earnings of financial advice practices that did not employ two or more people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Michael who successfully led that fight, saving not only Synchron, but potentially all licensees across the industry, from a hefty payroll tax bill that could have had a profound negative impact on their businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trapnell \u00a0adds the he greatly respected Harrison\u2019s business acumen and \u201c\u2026will profoundly miss his friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Harrison will be farewelled at a private family funeral, as per his final wishes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Highly-respected business strategist and former Synchron Independent Chair, Michael Harrison, passed away in Melbourne on Sunday, 21 May 2023, after a long illness. He was 78. Harrison worked closely with Synchron from 2007, when he was appointed Synchron\u2019s business strategy and marketing consultant. He then served as Chair from April 2011 until the sale of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dealer-groups","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}