Sydney-based boutique wealth manager, Sarto Advisory, today announces the launch of its new online investing solution, Sarto Invest, as a means of enabling a new generation of Australians to readily access professional investing.
Sarto Invest will initially offer access to the firm’s Growth Portfolio, which invests in ASX-listed securities. The minimum amount to get started is only $25,000. The solution will include additional model portfolios in due course.
Sarto Founder and Investment Advisor Hamish Foletta said that the firm was launching Sarto Invest as a means to reach a new audience of clients not yet ready for the upfront and higher costs of a personal advice service.
“Like all boutique wealth managers, we are limited in the number and type of clients we can take on – the economics of the industry mean we all focus on High Net Worth clients. And yet, all Australians deserve access to the benefits that professional investing can bring. By using technology to scale delivery of our intellectual property we can cost-effectively help an entirely new audience of clients, including those in the early stages of their wealth-building journeys.”
“In particular, our existing clients are very focused on issues to do with intergenerational wealth transfers, and want us to be involved in helping their adult children understand the right way to build and protect family wealth. Now with the launch of Sarto Invest we have an efficient means to do that,” Foletta said.
Foletta noted that with $3.5 trillion of wealth in Australia passing through the generations over the next two decades, progressive wealth management and advice firms were taking action now to reach and help younger investors.
“We think of our HNW clients as being part of the Sarto Family – now we can extend that reach to the extended families of our clients,” Foletta added.
The Sarto Invest solution is being delivered in collaboration with Melbourne-based investment platform, OpenInvest. Ravi Verma, Head of Distribution at OpenInvest, said that the firm was proud to be partnering with another high quality and well-regarded wealth manager.
“This is a very clear global trend; in every developed market well-run and strategic wealth management firms are not waiting for the next generation to inherit before turning up to pitch them with their traditional, face-to-face service model. Instead, they have an offering for every type of client, no matter where they are in their life-stage. These progressive firms are essentially saying, ‘You can engage with us in the way you want, and change that over time as you see fit,’” Verma said.
Foletta drew attention to the recently-released Quality of Advice Review report and its consideration by Government.
“Certainly, this industry requires a more streamlined regulatory framework, and yet the current rules are such that firms can compliantly reach a broader audience now, using proven technology. We think the smart play here is to act, rather than sit on the fence,” Foletta said.