Evans and Partners, Modern Ideas. Traditonal Service for Stockbroking in Melbourne Australia

Welcome to Evans and Partners

FAQS

The investment world is complex, and ever-changing. A portfolio needs to be constantly and professionally analysed to ensure not only that the total content is appropriate to your current needs, but that it takes account of future requirements as your life changes.

Evans and Partners exists to provide a personalised approach to investment. We have significant experience across the many facets of financial markets. We aim to direct that experience and knowledge to the benefit of our clients in plain language, and within cost effective structures.

Our business model is based on the total service we can offer our clients. If we perform professionally, with a strong work ethic, in a “back to basics” way, not only will our clients profit, but our company's business goals will also be fulfilled.

Our staff have bought into our mission and our values, in the best possible way. Our corporate structure is more aligned to a partnership model, and all our key staff, analysts and advisers will share in the upside of our success.

Is my money safe with Evans & Partners?

Evans & Partners is an Australian owned business. We are well capitalised, with substantial initial capital provided by our founder, David Evans, and further capital injected by the firms staff and advisory board. We have no external shareholders.

We are primarily an agency business, that is, our core product is our advice and our service to clients. As such, we do not take risks with our capital that expose our balance sheet to market risk or put our interests in conflict with the interests of our clients. Hence, our clients interests will truly always come first, and our financial position will remain strong during positive and negative market cycles.

When you invest with Evans and Partners, whether through our Traditional Service or our Full Service offering (includes portfolio administration such as receiving mailings, managing corporate actions and reconciling dividends), your investments remain in your own name.

We believe this is an important safeguard for you as it ensures you are not dependent on a custodian to release or realise investments to you, but at all times you retain the power to act on your own account.

Your cash is held with external banks or in cash management trusts with external institutions. Your cash does not fund investment activity on our account.

We are absolutely committed to providing a high level of service to private investors in Australia. The private client business is, and always will remain, our main focus.

How can Evans & Partners, a new firm, have established a scalable and well managed back-office?

We haven't. We have outsourced our back-office functions of settlements and clearing to Berndale Securities. Berndale is wholly owned by Merrill Lynch and currently provides back office services to 32 firms.

When you open an account with Evans and Partners your stock will be held on a HIN with Berndale Securities, who will action the settlement of buys and sells to that HIN, and debit or credit funds to your cash management account as appropriate.

Is it simple to move my accounts to Evans & Partners?

Setting up a traditional broking account should take no more than half an hour, in a one-on-one meeting with your adviser. This meeting will include completing the required paperwork, getting to know your needs, and beginning an on-going relationship. Once the paperwork is submitted, an account will be operative within one week and your HIN will move to Berndale Securities bringing with it your share investments.

For clients seeking a Full Service relationship, with an administrative solution, a similar meeting can conclude all paperwork, but a longer period should be allowed for aggregating your cost bases for future Capital Gains Tax optimisation purposes. If your managed funds and share investments are to be transferred from a custodian there may be delays as we await the release of stock by the custodian.

Do I choose my adviser?

We have gathered together 15 of the best Investment Advisers in the country, who bring a collective 200 years of experience in the financial services industry to Evans and Partners.

Typically, we would discuss your advisory needs with you before allocating one of these advisers to service your accounts. We allocate the adviser we believe best suits your personality and your needs. If you are familiar with one of our advisers then of course you are free to deal with them.

As Evans & Partners is a small start-up, how can it compete with the research departments of major investment banks?

Our research coverage of the broader market will utilise a quantitative approach, drawing on consensus financial data to monitor and assess valuation and earnings risk.

Via our Chief Investment Officer, we will provide research views to support our asset allocation recommendations and provide ideas on portfolio strategy. We have two regular publications; “The View from the Outer” - a weekly with a focus on investment themes and current issues, and “The Financial Engineer” – a monthly that will purely focus on Australian equities and highlight our current stock ideas.

We are currently putting together a small team of experienced Research Analysts with a broad market-wide mandate. Our intention is to develop an active research universe of 30-40 stocks (the majority sourced from the mid-to-small cap sectors). Our investment horizon will be 2-3 years, and as such we will attempt to identify opportunities that are undervalued by the market or have leverage to a macro or industry theme which we deem significant.

Within Evans & Partners we also have the expertise to provide advice on hybrid securities, investment grade debt and equity derivatives.

We subscribe to all the major market data/service providers – Bloomberg, Thomson One, DataStream, Iress and Praemium and receive research feeds from other providers in large cap Australian equities and managed funds.

I am used to a substantial reporting package  – both in print and online – with my current broker. Can Evans & Partners provide a similar or better service?

As a start-up we are in the fortunate position of having no legacy IT systems. Consequently, we have been able to build the optimal mix of technologies for delivering accurate and detailed portfolio information to clients and portfolio analytics to advisers.

Your portfolio information is available 24-7 on our website. Our website is malleable – we are happy to consider (reasonable!) suggestions for development of the site.

What are the broad objectives of Evans & Partners?

Our advisers and partners (who share in any upside from the business's success, and who are motivated by a common work ethic, and traditional approach to service) aim to provide a complete wealth management service for our clients. If we can establish a relationship based on trust and two way communication, then we have been successful.

It is our view that if we do our jobs well, using our experience and professional expertise, our clients will profit, and our business will succeed.

Will you have 'house product' to offer?

Just as we might compare the cost and features of phone services offered by Optus and Telstra, we will compare pricing and structure on product between various investment banks and fund managers with which we have established relationships. We will assess a range of investment products before we recommend any to our clients.

Our advice on such products will reflect our judgement of the ability of that product to best meet our objective of maximising your post tax, post fee returns.

Our approach will see us tapping the capability of a wide range of product providers. In limited circumstances we may recommend a suitably low cost alternative to you from the Evans and Partners stable, however, we will always provide you with alternative investment options.

How much money do I need to be a client of Evans & Partners?

There's no amount, large or small, that we require clients to have. The decision is up to you. Advisers who join Evans and Partners have asked themselves whether Evans and Partners is the best place to advise their clients from and answered 'yes'. Clients should ask a similar question – is Evans and Partners the best place for you to receive sound and objective advice?

If the answer is 'yes', then come and see Evans and Partners, and we'll assist you on your journey. Our service approach belongs to all our clients, and the private client business is our future. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with you.