Accounting firm Rees Pritchard partners with OpenInvest to launch online investing solution
Hunter accounting and advisory firm Rees Pritchard have partnered with OpenInvest to launch its new online investing solution, Rees Pritchard Invest Direct, in order to reach and serve the local community, and wider Australians who have been priced out of obtaining traditional financial advice.
Rees Pritchard Invest Direct will offer access to three diversified investment portfolios, covering a range of risk/return profiles. All three portfolios encourage a minimum of only $10,000 to get started, (however investors start to invest with a lower amount with a regular contribution plan) and are managed by the experienced investment team at Rees Pritchard.
Managing Partner Steven Pritchard said that the firm was launching Rees Pritchard Invest Direct to meet the needs of the broader client base of the accounting firm who wanted professional portfolio assistance, whilst not yet being ready for, or needing, the firm’s full personal advice service.
Pritchard also noted that as the cost of traditional personal advice had risen in recent years, the online solution would also give members of the broader Hunter community a simple, lower cost means to access the expertise of a well-established firm, trusted throughout the region.
“Since 1951 Rees Pritchard has been providing a broad array of advisory services to the people and businesses of the Hunter region, helping them with their financial affairs. We have always been more than just accountants, and we regard the launch of Rees Pritchard Invest Direct as a logical progression of our mission: using technology to help a much larger number of people to invest the right way, to help them reach their goals.”
“We have helped a large number of our accounting firm clients to get started, and stay, on the right path to long-term wealth creation for their families. However, as the cost of traditional personal advice has risen so dramatically in recent years, we found that our team – as have all advisers in Australia – was constrained in who we could help. Now with Rees Pritchard Invest Direct, we can offer a choice of solutions to all of the firm’s clients, and not have to turn away any prospective clients,” Pritchard said.
Pritchard added that with $3.5 trillion of wealth passing through the generations over the next two decades, the firm felt it was crucial to have an offering that was designed for the children of their High Net Worth clients.
“Our experience is that the adult children of our clients are very engaged with their finances and understand the importance of diversification and costs in successful investing. Unfortunately, the initial upfront cost of personal advice makes this traditional service difficult for most of them. Rees Pritchard Invest Direct allows them to open their investing account in five minutes, directly from our website,” Pritchard added.
Rees Pritchard Invest Direct not only provides access to a range of markets through the use of professionally managed ready-made portfolios, It also comes with a regular stream of the firm’s content on financial wellbeing topics, further assisting users to adopt sensible long-term financial habits, and showcasing the firm’s full range of advisory services.
The Importance of Community
Steven Pritchard also noted the firm saw the launch as an important and concrete affirmation of its role within the Hunter community.
“We have been part of the Hunter community for 73 years, and we obviously want everyone in our community to thrive. Unfortunately, there are so many online scams out there targeted at everyday Australians, and hence any firm established in a region that can provide a professional, trusted investing solution for members of their community is obviously going to be extremely helpful,” Pritchard said.
Partnership with OpenInvest
The Rees Pritchard Invest Direct solution is being delivered in collaboration with Melbourne-based investment platform, OpenInvest. The company’s head of distribution, Ravi Verma, said that OpenInvest was proud to be partnering with Rees Pritchard.
“The rules around personal advice and the loss of advisers across the industry mean that progressive firms wanting to reach and help the broadest possible audience need to leverage innovative technology. We’re proud to be playing our role in helping Rees Pritchard to provide their professional expertise to more of their accounting firm clients and to the people of the Hunter Valley, more broadly,” Verma said.
“There’s a large and engaged market out there for firms willing to be creative and use technology to reach them,” Verma added.
