Wealth Management for High Net Worth Clients
Preserve and Grow Substantial Capital
Wealth management for clients with substantial assets requires strategies that extend well beyond traditional financial planning. Once you've accumulated significant capital - typically $1 million+ in investable assets outside your primary residence - the financial challenges shift from accumulation to preservation, tax optimisation, and multi-generational wealth transfer.
High net worth clients face complexities that standard planning approaches simply can't address: concentrated equity positions that create outsized risk, tax inefficiencies across multiple entity structures, succession planning for business assets or family wealth, accessing institutional-grade investment opportunities, and coordinating advisers across accounting, legal, and investment domains.
This is where bespoke wealth management becomes essential.
What Defines High Net Worth in Australia?
The global standard for High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) classification is $1 million USD or more in investable assets, excluding primary residence. In Australia, wealth management services typically become economically viable once investable capital exceeds $1 million AUD.
Under the Corporations Act, wholesale investor status is available to clients with either $2.5 million+ in net assets or $250,000+ gross income for the past two consecutive financial years. Wholesale status can provide access to certain investment products and simplified disclosure requirements, though it's not a prerequisite for comprehensive wealth management services.
Our wealth management clients generally hold $1 million to $20 million+ in investable assets and include:
Business Owners Managing Exit Capital
Successfully exited their business and now managing substantial liquidity. Often seeking diversification away from concentrated positions whilst optimising tax on proceeds and structuring for long-term wealth preservation.
Senior Executives
C-suite executives, partners, or senior professionals with significant equity compensation, substantial super balances, and high ongoing income. Typically managing complex remuneration structures whilst building assets outside super.
Medical and Legal Professionals
Practice owners or senior partners with significant practice holdings, high income, professional structures, and limited time for active wealth management. Often seeking sophisticated tax planning combined with succession strategies.
Inherited or Family Wealth
Managing inherited capital or multi-generational family wealth. Focus typically on preservation, growth, succession planning, and potentially establishing family governance frameworks or charitable giving structures.
How High Net Worth Wealth Management Differs from Financial Planning
Traditional financial planning focuses predominantly on accumulation strategies: building super through contributions, creating investment portfolios from regular savings, managing debt efficiently, and protecting income through insurance. These approaches work well for clients building wealth.
High net worth wealth management addresses fundamentally different challenges:
Capital Preservation Over Growth
Whilst growth remains important, capital preservation typically becomes the primary objective once substantial wealth is achieved. The focus shifts to protecting what you've built through appropriate diversification, risk management, and tax-efficient structures.
The idea is to “win by not losing money” as there’s now so much of it which is a completely different paradigm to those trying to build wealth.
Tax Optimisation Across Complex Structures
High net worth clients often operate through multiple entities - family trusts, companies, SMSFs, investment partnerships. Each structure has distinct tax treatment, and optimising tax efficiency requires strategic coordination across all entities whilst maintaining flexibility for future changes.
Concentrated Position Management
Business owners often hold substantial capital in a single asset - their business, commercial property, or equity holdings. Managing this concentration risk through staged diversification whilst optimising tax on transitions requires careful planning and execution.
Institutional Investment Access
Wholesale investors can access institutional-grade investment opportunities generally unavailable to retail investors: private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, direct property syndicates etc.
These can provide diversification and return enhancement, though they typically involve higher minimum investments, complexity, and liquidity constraints.
Multi-Generational Planning
High net worth clients increasingly focus on wealth transfer to next generations through tax-effective structures, family governance frameworks, succession planning for business assets, and potentially establishing charitable giving vehicles through Private Ancillary Funds.
Strategies for High Net Worth Clients
Portfolio Coordination and Asset Allocation
Comprehensive asset allocation assessment across all holdings—super, investment properties, business holdings, equity portfolios, cash holdings, and alternative investments. The objective is ensuring appropriate diversification whilst maintaining tax efficiency and liquidity for anticipated needs.
Many high net worth clients hold 50%+ of wealth in a single asset class or concentrated position. Strategic reallocation over time can reduce risk exposure whilst deploying capital into complementary assets. This typically involves modeling scenarios, assessing tax implications, and implementing changes systematically rather than reactively.
Tax-Effective Structuring
High net worth clients often operate across multiple tax entities. Optimising structures requires understanding how each entity is taxed, coordinating income and deduction timing, managing distributions efficiently, and maintaining flexibility for future restructuring as circumstances change.
Common structuring considerations include:
Family Trust Optimisation
Family trusts provide distribution flexibility, potentially directing income to family members in lower tax brackets. However, trust structures involve ongoing administrative costs and certain restrictions. We can help assess whether trust structures remain optimal for your circumstances or whether restructuring may provide benefits.
SMSF Strategies for Substantial Balances
Clients with substantial super balances can use SMSFs for direct property investment, concentrated equity positions, or pre-pension tax optimisation strategies. Once super balances exceed the $1.9 million transfer balance cap, strategic planning around accessing excess amounts becomes essential.
Debt Structuring
High net worth clients often hold both investment debt and non-deductible personal debt. Debt recycling strategies, appropriate borrowing entity selection, and coordinating debt across structures can improve tax efficiency whilst maintaining appropriate leverage levels.
Concentrated Position Management
Business owners, executives with company equity, or property investors with significant holdings often face concentration risk—having the majority of wealth tied to single asset's performance. Managing this risk requires strategic approaches:
Staged Diversification
Rather than liquidating concentrated positions immediately and triggering substantial capital gains tax, staged diversification over multiple years can spread tax liability whilst progressively reducing concentration risk.
Hedging Strategies
For executives unable to sell restricted equity or business owners pre-exit, hedging strategies can provide downside protection whilst maintaining upside participation. These typically suit situations where outright sale isn't feasible but risk management is essential.
Pre-Exit Planning
Business owners contemplating exit in 3-5 years can implement strategies now that improve after-tax proceeds later: business restructuring, small business CGT concession optimisation, succession planning to maximise goodwill value, and pre-positioning assets for optimal tax treatment.
Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer
High net worth estate planning extends beyond standard wills and powers of attorney to include:
Estate Equalisation Strategies
Ensuring fair distribution between beneficiaries when assets can't be divided equally - for example, leaving the family business to one child whilst ensuring other children receive equivalent value through other assets or insurance strategies.
Succession Planning for Business Assets
Transitioning business ownership to the next generation (or external buyers) whilst maintaining family involvement, protecting asset value, and optimising tax treatment of the transition.
Charitable Giving Structures
Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) allow tax-deductible contributions to a foundation that makes ongoing charitable distributions. For high net worth clients with philanthropic objectives, PAFs provide structure whilst delivering immediate tax deductions.
Family Governance Frameworks
For substantial family wealth, establishing governance structures - family constitutions, decision-making frameworks, and communication protocols - can help preserve wealth across generations whilst managing family dynamics.
Accessing Wholesale Investment Opportunities
Wholesale investor status (available to clients meeting $2.5 million net assets OR $250,000+ income criteria) can provide access to investment opportunities generally unavailable to retail investors:
Private Equity and Venture Capital
Direct investment in private companies, either through established funds or direct deal participation. These typically involve higher minimums ($50,000 to $250,000+), longer timeframes (5-10 years), and illiquidity, but can provide diversification and potentially higher returns than public markets.
Hedge Fund Strategies
Access to alternative investment strategies including long/short equity, global macro, managed futures, or arbitrage strategies. These can provide portfolio diversification, though they typically involve higher fees, complexity, and varying liquidity terms.
Direct Property Syndicates
Investment in commercial or industrial property through wholesale syndicates, often providing access to larger assets with professional management. These suit clients seeking property exposure without direct ownership responsibilities.
Separately Managed Accounts
Institutional portfolio management with customized asset allocation, tax optimisation, and direct ownership of underlying securities. SMAs typically require minimums of $500,000 to $1 million+ but provide greater control and tax efficiency than managed funds.
These opportunities involve higher complexity, reduced liquidity, and typically higher risk than traditional investments. They're not suitable for all clients, and careful assessment of risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and existing portfolio positioning is essential before allocating capital.
Who This Service Suits
Wealth management for high net worth clients typically suits individuals and families who:
Hold $1 million+ in investable assets outside primary residence, creating sufficient scale for sophisticated strategies to become cost-effective.
Operate across multiple entity structures (trusts, companies, SMSFs) requiring coordinated management and tax optimisation.
Face specific high net worth challenges: concentrated positions, complex compensation structures, business succession planning, or multi-generational wealth transfer objectives.
Seek strategic coordination across their financial affairs rather than transactional investment advice or isolated product recommendations.
Value working with advisers who understand high net worth complexities and can coordinate with existing accountants, legal advisers, and other professionals.
Our Approach to High Net Worth Wealth Management
We work with high net worth clients through comprehensive assessment of existing structures, asset allocation, tax efficiency, and strategic objectives, followed by coordinated implementation of strategies designed to preserve and grow wealth whilst optimising tax treatment and managing risk appropriately.
Initial Portfolio Assessment
Comprehensive review of all asset holdings, entity structures, current tax position, existing adviser relationships, and long-term wealth objectives. This creates the baseline understanding required for strategic recommendations.
Strategic Wealth Plan Development
Modeling various scenarios to determine optimal asset allocation, tax-effective structuring opportunities, risk management approaches, and succession planning strategies tailored to your specific circumstances.
Coordinated Implementation
Working with your existing advisers (accountants, lawyers, property advisers) to implement recommendations efficiently whilst maintaining appropriate documentation and compliance with regulatory requirements.
Ongoing Portfolio Monitoring
Regular review of portfolio performance, rebalancing as needed, tax optimisation opportunities, and strategic adjustments as your circumstances or objectives evolve.
We operate through a fee-only advice model with no commission-based recommendations. Our recommendations are based solely on assessing which strategies best suit your circumstances rather than product commissions or institutional relationships.
Common Wealth Management Questions
What's the minimum for wealth management services?
Our wealth management services typically become cost-effective for clients with $1 million+ in investable assets outside their primary residence. Below this level, standard financial planning approaches often provide better value.
How do fees work?
We charge fees based on the complexity of your wealth structure and services required. Initial comprehensive wealth assessment fees typically range from $5,500 to $15,000+ depending on scope. Ongoing advisory fees are structured as either fixed annual retainers or percentage-based fees for portfolio management services.
Do you manage investments directly?
We can provide investment management through separately managed accounts for clients seeking consolidated portfolio management, or we can work with your existing investment managers whilst providing strategic oversight and coordination.
What makes your approach different?
We focus on comprehensive wealth coordination across all your holdings and structures rather than isolated product recommendations. Our clients value strategic thinking and implementation support across their complete financial picture.
Begin Your Wealth Management Assessment
High net worth wealth management requires understanding your specific circumstances, objectives, existing structures, and the challenges you're seeking to address. We provide complimentary initial consultations to assess whether our wealth management services align with your needs.
During this consultation, we'll discuss your current wealth position, entity structures, key objectives, existing adviser relationships, and specific challenges you're facing. This allows both of us to determine whether proceeding makes sense for your situation.
Book your confidential wealth management consultation to explore whether comprehensive wealth coordination strategies suit your circumstances.
For professional, personal advice tailored to your circumstances, please reach out below.
At Summit Financial Planning, we excel in precise financial management tailored to your needs. Contact us today for expert assistance.
Summit Financial Planning ABN 28 856 289 615 is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Lifespan Financial Planning Pty Ltd AFSL No. 229892 ABN 23 065 921 735.
Jeremy Douglas is an Authorised Representative (ASIC NO. 001238064) of Lifespan Financial Planning AFSL No. 229892.
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Business Owners Managing Exit Capital
Successfully exited their business and now managing substantial liquidity. Often seeking diversification away from concentrated positions whilst optimising tax on proceeds and structuring for long-term wealth preservation.
Senior Executives
C-suite executives, partners, or senior professionals with significant equity compensation, substantial super balances, and high ongoing income. Typically managing complex remuneration structures whilst building assets outside super.
Medical and Legal Professionals
Practice owners or senior partners with significant practice holdings, high income, professional structures, and limited time for active wealth management. Often seeking sophisticated tax planning combined with succession strategies.
Inherited or Family Wealth
Managing inherited capital or multi-generational family wealth. Focus typically on preservation, growth, succession planning, and potentially establishing family governance frameworks or charitable giving structures.