The growing number of high-net-worth individuals in Perth has attracted one of the more exclusive players providing advice in that realm – The Myer Family Company.
The growing number of high-net-worth individuals in Perth has attracted one of the more exclusive players providing advice in that realm – The Myer Family Company.
Offering an unusual blend of wealth management, financial advice, tax and accounting services, succession planning and philanthropic direction to the wealthy, their families and associated foundations, charities and institutions, the Myer Family Company claims to have as much as $4 billion under administration, and about half that under management or advice.
The group – called the Myer Family Office until last year and established to manage the financial affairs of the Melbourne-based Myer family behind the national department store chain founded by Sidney Myer – has announced it will open an office in Perth with an official launch planned to take place during the Jeffrey Smart exhibition early next month.
The company has hired private client adviser Julian Butler to head its operations in Perth. It is understood Mr Butler has most recently been working with a small base of Perth clients, having previously worked with the private banking operations of ANZ.
The Myer Family Company, which has offices in Melbourne and Sydney, has been a for-profit service since 1999.
Until recently, it is understood that the company was 25 per cent owned by the Maple-Brown family, also a high-profile fund manager in its own right.
The Myer family took back full control last year after five years with a minority partner.
The company offers a wide range of services targeted at a boutique audience, which it claims provides leverage for both parties. In essence, new clients gain from the scale offered by linking their wealth with that of the Myer family, while the family defrays the cost of managing its estate by sharing the services.
“Somebody does anything we do but nobody does everything we do,” a company spokesman said.
He said the business it was in lent itself to a constant on-the-ground presence.
“We have been working with Perth clients for a while,” he said.
“We think it is an attractive market.
“What we find is that it is better to work in the city rather than fly-in, fly-out.”
The rise of wealth in Perth on the back of the resources boom is well documented, but much of that is due to recent success, which is swelling the ranks of the new rich who are relatively unsophisticated when it comes to managing private fortunes.
Those on the philanthropic side of the Western Australian corporate scene have noted this lack of experience and sought to develop a Perth-based umbrella organisation, Giving West, to assist the newly rich in determining their charitable objectives.
The Myer Family Company has a significant philanthropic side due to the strategy of its founders, who are well known for their charitable work. They established the Sidney Myer Fund in 1934 and The Myer Foundation in 1959.
The company is chaired by Rupert Myer, who since 2006 has sat on the board of the listed retailer his family once owned.
While the Myer Family Company may have billions under its watch, the entity’s own accounts reflect that of just the pure service business.
According to its annual report for the year ending June 30, the company made a loss of $266,617 from revenue just above $9.2 million. It made a profit of $430,914 in the previous corresponding period from revenue of just more than $9 million.
