What does it actually take to build a financial planning firm that wins Company of the Year?

Jeff Thurecht is the co-founder and CEO of Evalesco Financial Services, a Sydney-based firm he built alongside business partner Marshall Brentnall nearly two decades ago. The name says it all: Evalesco is Latin for "to grow strong, prevail and add value." In 2025, the industry agreed, awarding Evalesco both the Holistic Advice Firm of the Year and the overall Company of the Year at the IFA Excellence Awards.

In this conversation, Jeff opens up about the deliberate decisions behind that recognition. He shares how Evalesco built demographic-specific advice pods, from wealth accumulators and pre-retirees through to a genuine high net worth, multi-family office offering via the Principal Edge acquisition. He explains how a team of nine in the Philippines became one of the most valued parts of the business, not as outsourced support but as genuinely embedded team members.

Jeff is also candid about what it really meant to win a company award rather than an individual one, and why building a team without "rock stars" has always been the goal.

We also cover:

Jeff's answer to the final question, what single thing would move the needle most right now, is one of the clearest articulations of great advice leadership you'll hear. 

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, I sit down with our Chief Operating Officer, Nick Bordi, to unpack one of the most talked-about topics in financial planning businesses: employee ownership.

At HPH Solutions, what started as a simple idea to reward and retain great people has evolved into something far more powerful. Our Team Equity Trust now plays a central role in ownership transition, long-term incentives, and what we’ve come to think of as an “internal private equity” model.

Nick and I go deep into how the structure actually works – from eligibility and valuation through to funding mechanisms for younger team members and the governance required when you have dozens of employee owners. We also share the lessons we’ve learned along the way, including mistakes, structural changes, and the thinking behind key decisions like not discounting equity.

If you’re a business owner thinking about succession, culture, or how to align your team to long-term growth, this conversation offers a practical and transparent look at what’s worked for us – and what we’d do differently.

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob sits down with Corey Wastle, founder of Verse Wealth, to unpack how his firm has reimagined advice delivery,  replacing the traditional SOA model with a streamlined video-first approach that has dramatically reduced paraplanning time, and elevated client clarity.

Corey shares:

How recording advice meetings can meet SOA compliance requirements

Why Verse reduced its advice document from 15,000 words to 3,500

How they cut paraplanning time from 8 hours to 2.5 hours

The structure of their 3-meeting advice process

How tracking financial wellbeing strengthens long-term relationships

Why the future may lie in a “CXM” — a Client Experience Manager

This is a practical, behind-the-scenes look at how one firm is modernising advice delivery, without waiting for regulatory reform.

If you’re thinking about efficiency, client clarity, AI integration, or the future of advice, this episode is essential listening.

Alexander “Xan” Kitchin, Managing Director of Wealth Connexion and 2025 IFA Excellence Award – Individual winner, joins Rob Pyne to share how a corporate mindset, disciplined systems, and a strong team culture are reshaping modern financial advice. In this episode, Xan explains why “you can’t scale trust,” and what that means for adviser capacity, AI, and the future of professional advice businesses. A thoughtful conversation for practice owners and advisers thinking about sustainable growth and long-term impact.

Many financial advice businesses are busy, growing, and delivering for clients — yet still fall short of their true commercial potential.

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob Pyne is joined by Dean Lombardo, Founder of Effortless Engagement, to explore the insights from Dean’s white paper The Profit Gap and why advice firms often leak profit without realising it.

Dean outlines four core sources of profit leakage identified through extensive research and diagnostic work across advice businesses:

Organisational misalignment

Workflow complexity

Capacity misuse

Conversion friction

The conversation focuses on how these issues quietly compound inside otherwise well-run firms, why they’re hard to see from the inside, and what business owners can do to unlock profit already embedded within their existing model — without cutting service or culture.

If you’re an advice business owner who feels busy and commercially disciplined but suspects there’s more potential in your business, this episode offers a clear and practical framework to start closing the Profit Gap.

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob Pyne is joined by Chris Hill (lawyer and financial adviser) and Rafael Cohen (fintech founder) from Inherit Australia to explore a smarter, adviser-led approach to estate planning.

They unpack why advisers are uniquely positioned to drive estate planning conversations, how structured questioning can surface family dynamics and risks before they become disputes, and how technology can bridge the long-standing gap between advisers and lawyers, without crossing into legal advice.

You’ll hear how Inherit Australia enables advisers to:

Confidently lead estate planning discussions within a compliant framework

Improve client engagement, retention, and intergenerational connections

Work more efficiently with lawyers through better upfront information

Ensure estate plans are completed, stored, and accessible when they’re needed most

A practical, future-focused conversation for advisers looking to deepen client relationships and protect their practice through the coming intergenerational wealth transfer. 

Is your advice tech stack quietly helping your business grow, or quietly driving everyone mad?

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob Pyne sits down with Peter Worn, co-founder of Finura Group, to unpack what it really takes to bring tech sanity to a modern advice firm. Drawing on years of experience working with licensees and advice businesses across Australia, Peter lifts the lid on the promises, pitfalls, and hidden costs behind today’s technology and AI solutions.

They explore:

The difference between a genuine tech stack and a messy tech pile

How to spot conflicts of interest with Managed Service Providers (MSPs), vendors, and “AI agencies”

A simple ROI lens for deciding which tech or AI project to do next

Why duplicating tools for tasks, communication, and storage adds risk (not value)

The real trade-offs between industry platforms and enterprise CRMs like Salesforce or Dynamics

What good document management and data hygiene actually look like in practice

Stay listening right to the end, where Peter shares how buyers really assess your tech when you’re preparing for sale. Why “weird and wonderful” systems can hurt your valuation, how your cyber posture becomes a trust filter for acquirers, and the key signs that your problem isn’t technology at all, but leadership and business model.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re overpaying for tech, under-using what you have, or on the brink of an expensive misstep, this conversation will help you reset, refocus, and get more out of every dollar you invest in technology.

As we wrap up the year, this short solo episode is part reflection and part recommended reading list.

In this episode, Rob steps back to reflect on some of the key ideas that have shaped his thinking as a business owner, drawing on a selection of books that have had a lasting influence on how HPH Solutions has been built. What’s been especially striking is how consistently these same ideas have shown up in the real-world experiences shared by guests on The Trusted Adviser.

From Jim Collins’ Flywheel concept and the power of disciplined, compounding progress, to the importance of transparency, execution, culture, and trust, this episode connects enduring business principles with lived experience inside advice firms.

It’s a reflection on what really drives sustainable success in professional services businesses, and particularly in financial advice. Not shortcuts or breakthroughs, but clarity of purpose, disciplined execution, strong people, and a long-term mindset.

We’re taking a short break over the New Year and will be back in two weeks with a new guest episode.

Wishing all trusted advisers a happy and healthy New Year, and every success in 2026.

Most advice firms in Australia run on Xplan, but very few truly understand what’s happening under the hood, how to optimise it, where it breaks, and what it takes to integrate it into a modern tech stack.

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob Pyne sits down with Matt McGuinty (FinTech Strategic Partners), one of the rare people who has worked inside Xplan with the developers themselves, and now helps advice firms lift capacity, consistency, and scale through better systems and smarter workflow design.

Together, Rob and Matt unpack:

Why “the tyranny of variation” quietly destroys efficiency in advice businesses

The red flags Matt looks for in tech due diligence before a merger or acquisition

How to think about dual CRMs (Xplan plus Salesforce/Dynamics), data ownership, and avoiding double entry

What “online SOAs” could look like through a client portal, including digital fact finds and web-style advice presentation

AI in advice: what’s useful now, what’s hype, and why data security and data quality come first

If you’re wrestling with scale, consistency, or tech change (or you’re considering an acquisition), this one will give you a clearer framework for what matters and what to fix first.

In this episode of The Trusted Adviser, Rob Pyne sits down with Michael Goodman, founder of Wealthstream Advisors and now President of Greenspring Advisors, for an honest and thoughtful conversation about what it really takes to build an advice firm that outlives its founders.

At a time when private equity is reshaping the advice profession, Michael chose a very different path. In 2025, he led Wealthstream into a merger with Greenspring Advisors — not for liquidity, not for scale at any cost, but to strengthen multi-generational employee ownership and build a governance structure designed for the future.

In this candid discussion, Michael shares:

Why remaining independent required broadening the shareholder base

The personal realisations that shaped his decision to avoid outside capital

How his role has evolved from founder to “bench coach” and strategic partner

What it feels like to step into formal governance after years of leading a smaller firm

How two culturally aligned firms blended processes, values, and people

Why the next generation — not external investors — should own the decision-making power

The early surprises, wins, and cultural moments that affirmed the merger

His hopes for the firm he will ultimately hand over, not sell off

This episode offers rare insight into succession planning, governance evolution, and leadership transition from someone who has lived through the complexity — and made deliberate, values-based decisions at every step.

Whether you’re a founder thinking about succession, an adviser stepping into leadership, or simply curious about what the future of independent advice can look like, Michael’s story offers clarity, conviction, and inspiration.