Former Perpetual superannuation and investment solutions group executive Eric Wang has joined forces with a number of his former colleagues to establish a boutique consulting firm.
The firm, Sunstone Partners, offers services specifically for wealth and asset management organisations.
Russel Chesler and Michael Brown, both former Perpetual senior executives, have taken up executive directorships at Sunstone with Wang heading the operation as managing director.
The consultancy firm opened its doors two months ago and offers a wide range of services including strategy development, product development and research, and profit optimisation.
“We actually take the process from formulating the strategy through to implementation as opposed to doing the strategy, writing a document and then handing it to someone else to implement, who may well then rewrite the strategy,” Wang told InvestorDaily.
Sunstone is already helping a client with over 100 managed funds rationalise its offering to improve efficiency in preparation for the post Future of Financial Advice regulatory environment.
According to Brown, the present market conditions after the global financial crisis, where many fund managers were carrying tax losses forward, had created an opportune time for fund managers to address any legacy issues with older products with a minimum taxation liability impact.
“When markets are down, accrued tax liabilities are down, so this is the best time to do it. The hurdles to product rationalisation are tax, regulation and operations, and the markets being down reduces some of the tax burden,” he said.
“We have techniques that minimise the pain. It’s still going to be a bit painful, it’s still hard work, and you’re still going to have to make some tough decisions, but we have some ways of making what people think is impossible, possible.”
