Taking perspectives from some of Australia’s leading advice practice principals on their growth journeys and learnings from a leading independent US-based wealth management firm, we share actionable insights on scaling a financial advice business.
Part 3: Achieving scale: lessons in business growth and strategy
Australia’s financial advice industry continues to undergo significant structural change. For firms seeking to expand, this creates a paradox: the same forces reshaping the sector are making scale more complex, capital-intensive, and dependent on delivering efficiency without sacrificing personalisation.
The 2026 Macquarie Accounting and Financial Advice Benchmarking Study surveys Australia's leading financial services firms to uncover the drivers of sustainable, profitable growth. Drawing on financial, operational and talent metrics from high-performing, multi-disciplinary businesses, it identifies three core pillars of performance: People, Process and Technology.
People
Nurturing and empowering talented people with meaningful work and appropriate support.
Process
Providing structure and documentation to support streamlined operations and high performance.
Technology
Embedding technology and automations that lay a seamless foundation for growth at scale.
The findings have been validated by some of Australia’s leading advice practice principals. Sharing insights into the deliberate choices their firms are making, these principles showcase how high-performing firms invest in their growth across the three pillars and put robust measures in place for success.
How we hold on to our best people
Marisa Riccio, Managing Director at Hood Sweeney, Adelaide
Growth-sharing as both a retention and attraction tool
Recognising high performers and letting them participate in the upside as the business grows can both shift engagement and act as a recruitment differentiator.
Layered leadership development at every career stage
Structured programs targeting every career stage – emerging talent, middle management and executives – to create a pipeline of ‘future stars’ who repay the investment through loyalty and deeper client engagement.
Investing in leaders is non-negotiable
‘People leave leaders, not businesses’ so the leadership team evolves to meet the expectations of the next generation.
How we simplified our approach to scaling the firm
Andrew Hewison, Managing Director and Partner at Hewison Private Wealth, Melbourne
Deliberate simplicity as strategy
The firm’s original vision and business plan remain essentially unchanged – it provides a wealth-only offering from a single office, allowing it to control key variables to protect culture and client quality.
Legacy over growth and exit
Rather than a pure pursuit of growth, the goal has always been – and remains – to build a sustainable business with a differentiated service model that could outlive the founder.
Be the best, not the biggest
“Our goal has never been to be the biggest wealth business; it’s always been to be the best” – this clarity has sustained organic growth from a disciplined loop: acquire clients, deliver exceptional service, earn referrals.
How we invest in people and technology simultaneously
Jarrod Bramble, Managing Partner at Cutcher & Neale, Newcastle
Structured career paths
Programs giving every person visibility on their next step – Path to Manager, Path to Associate, Path to Partnership – have created real ownership depth (and created nine new partners).
Core values embedded everywhere
Incorporate the firm’s values into everything, including a partner remuneration model (comprising core values and growth components), and involve partners in the new starter induction process.
Dual investment in people and tech
Pair technology investment with people development; be honest that AI efficiency gains must be matched with growth to deliver real value; and be prepared to ‘fail fast on AI’ where it’s clear there isn’t a majority benefit.
Differentiation as a growth opportunity
With much of the industry still competing on a similar service proposition, however, differentiation remains an underleveraged growth opportunity.
Aspiriant, which has grown to become one of the US’ top independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firms, has a 100 per cent employee-owned, fiduciary-first model that not only sets it apart in the wealth management industry, but has also been central to its expansion from a four-partner startup to a 92-partner firm.
Making ownership inseparable from the advice it delivers has allowed Aspirant to prioritise long-term client outcomes, avoid outside influences and create a sustainable structure for future generations. It also demonstrates that firms can scale without compromising advice quality.
“Our view has always been that the decisionmakers in the organisation must be beholden to what happens in the conference room – there can be no outside conflicting influences,” says Rob Francais, co-founder and CEO of Aspiriant. “Our 100 per cent employee ownership thus became the organising principle of our firm.”
“It means we focus on just two stakeholders: our clients, and what they need to make good decisions; and our advisers, and what they need to thrive in their careers,” he says. “We exist to combine these two stakeholder groups in a productive way, balance their needs, and sustain that balance indefinitely.”
For Aspiriant, putting its clients and advisers at the heart of its decision-making includes:
- Ownership as architecture, not incentive. Employee ownership is the structural foundation of the firm’s fiduciary duty, ensuring decision-makers are beholden only to clients. This ownership architecture then becomes the organising principle for everything else: how the firm grows, who it merges with, and how it’s governed.
- Scaling through aligned mergers. Rather than acquiring firms for margin, Aspiriant merges with like-minded practices under shared values and equal ownership rights. Positioning itself this way has seen it become a natural landing spot for advisers seeking scale without compromising what they stand for.
- Long-term strategic clarity as a compounding advantage. The firm credits its twenty-year strategic clarity – and making that a public commitment to its employees and clients – with strengthening its ecosystem and creating compounding efficiencies which firms whose strategy is to ‘keep their options open’ cannot replicate.
- Pursuing defence, offence, and technology as human amplification. Aspiriant’s strategy is to maintain its hard-won net promoter and engagement scores while simultaneously scaling by leveraging its unique brand and employee ownership model. It supplements this with investment in technology and AI as a ‘human amplification strategy’ – freeing advisers to engage in more client connections, not replace them.
One of the biggest lessons Aspiriant has learned is that culture cannot stay static as the firm scales, says Summer Hammons, Aspiriant's Chief People Officer.
“We've been intentional about investing in our culture, our communication, and our leadership capacity and capabilities as we grow. Whether we're growing organically or inorganically, we want our people to feel supported, connected and really clear about the direction we're heading in.”
At times this has directly shaped the business’s approach to growth, adds Hammons.
“Integration and growth can lead to fatigue, especially if we're not mindful about our pacing and our priorities. We've said no to deals before – it's been tough – but we have said no. Growth has to serve the culture, not the other way around.”
Make clarity of purpose your differentiator
Across the insights, one theme holds firm: advice firms with a differentiated purpose that make deliberate, integrated bets on people, process and technology – rather than pursuing growth for growth's sake – are best placed to successfully capture potential while navigating a complex market.
As well as yielding tangible results today, these strategies can help high-performing businesses prepare for an evolution of their industry, as generational wealth transfer cycles through and creates significant demand for differentiated, high-quality financial services.