AZ NGA advice firms announce ‘super firm’ merger

In a move the firms said was designed to deliver scale and efficiency benefits, career opportunities for employees, and a strengthened value proposition for clients, the two AZ NGA firms have announced they will merge.

Eureka Whittaker Macnaught (EWM), which has offices in Sydney, Central Coast, Newcastle, and Brisbane, provides holistic goals-based advice and recently added finance and mortgage broking services.

Blue Harbour is based at Cleveland in Brisbane and specialises in superannuation, retirement, and estate planning.

According to the firms, the merged entity will employ 32 people, including 14 financial advisers across five locations, however, it will continue to trade under both EWM and Blue Harbour in the short term.

According to Greg Cook, co-founder and chief executive of EWM, the deal creates a large, integrated firm with significant scale, capability and capacity.

“I’m very excited about our future. Our mission is to be our clients’ trusted adviser and the ringmaster of their financial affairs, which is a key driver behind our growth strategy and recent decision to establish a mortgage and lending business,” Cook said.

“We also have great capability with self-managed super and aged care advice, and we have great advice relationships with industry superannuation.”

The combined entity will have one management team, under the leadership of Cook and general manager Sally Bell, with a clear vision to build a strong “professional services super firm”.

Todd Hitchcock, CEO of Blue Harbour, said the group’s merger with EWM would deliver many benefits to employees, advisers and clients including a stable, experienced management team.

“I’ll still be involved in the business and I’m always thinking about the future to ensure that the business will be around for a long time to serve our people and our clients,” Hitchcock said.

Cook added: “EWM has experienced strong growth, both organically and through M&A, and we have ambitious plans to become a formidable, multi-disciplinary super firm.”