MB
LinkedIn
Private clients · Cross-border wealth
A private wealth adviser and practice builder working at the intersection of investment management, international tax coordination, estate structuring and succession.
Senior Financial Adviser
Brisbane, Australia
Private wealth is rarely a single-market exercise. The strongest outcomes come from coordinating capital, structures, jurisdictions and generations as one strategy.
Michael has built his career around internationally mobile families whose wealth crosses borders, legal systems and generations. His work brings together investment strategy, retirement capital, tax-aware structuring and estate planning, coordinated with trustees, tax advisers and legal professionals.
His academic foundation in South African financial planning law and taxation has enabled him to absorb new regulatory systems quickly, then add jurisdiction-specific vocational qualifications. After establishing and successfully exiting his own advice practice in Singapore, he relocated to Australia and rapidly rebuilt a private-client network.
Singapore · Multi-jurisdictional private client
A S$4 million initial discretionary mandate for an ultra-high-net-worth client became a S$6 million relationship under Michael’s strategic leadership.
Working alongside professional trustees and tax specialists in Singapore, the United Kingdom and South Africa, Michael coordinated a multi-tier fiduciary and corporate structure spanning Singapore, the BVI and South Africa.
The mandate aligned portfolio income and a 6–10% target-return objective with tax efficiency, asset control and succession across the client’s family. A further S$1 million was entrusted the following year, alongside portfolio growth.
Bring specialists and jurisdictions into one coherent strategy.
Match ownership and control to tax and succession objectives.
Manage capital with an intergenerational view.
Mauritius → Gibraltar → global markets
A British national living in Singapore held an employer-sponsored Mauritian pension invested in Mauritian rupees. He wanted international diversification without fully encashing the pension and crystallising tax.
Michael researched overseas pension regimes, transfer rules and trustee requirements to identify a Gibraltar arrangement whose pension characteristics satisfied the Mauritian trustees’ equivalency test. Following nine months of technical work and coordination, the trustees approved the transfer without a taxable withdrawal.
The pension was moved from Mauritian rupees into US dollars and repositioned into a global equities mandate—preserving its pension status while solving the client’s currency and investment constraints.
Advised more than 50 clients within the first six months in Australia, including a single A$4.2 million mandate introduced through an international referral network.
Leading propositions for Australian expatriate repatriation planning and end-to-end UK pension transfers through Australian self-managed superannuation structures.
Joined St. James’s Place Asia as an adviser within an established Principal Practice. Over more than two years, Michael developed the advisory and commercial disciplines required to lead a practice, earned internal backing and completed a self-funded transition to establish his own Principal Practice.
He then led that practice for four years, building it from inception to £12 million in funds under management, predominantly from discretionary rather than pension assets, in one of the world’s most competitive private-wealth markets. This represented approximately £3–4 million of new assets each year and more than £110,000 in annual initial advice fees.
Ranked among the top three young producers across St. James’s Place Asia and the Middle East for three consecutive years.
Concluded the chapter through a commercially successful practice sale and orderly transition of the client book, preserving continuity for clients and value for the acquiring adviser.
Developed the technical base in financial planning law, taxation and holistic advice that would later underpin cross-border private-client work in Asia and Australia.
For internationally connected families, capital management and succession cannot be separated. Michael’s role is to bring the family and its professional advisers around one table, clarify the objective and coordinate the path forward.
Aligning ownership, control and inheritance objectives across jurisdictions, entities and generations.
Working with legal and tax specialists on UK inheritance tax, South African estate duty, gifting and cross-border structuring.
Using family meetings and clear governance to help wealth transfer with purpose, context and continuity.
A rigorous academic base, extended through market-specific licensing and vocational study across Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and South Africa.
Previously registered as a representative under Singapore’s MAS financial advisory regime
High Distinction results across accelerated Kaplan Professional conversion studies
Certified Financial Planner, South Africa
General Tax Practitioner, South Africa
Associate member, progressing towards TEP
Advanced Diploma in International Wealth Management
Pensions and Retirement Planning
Financial Planning
Financial Planning Law
Registered financial adviser
A career built across borders