Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to Finance Friends with Fabian, where we give our listeners an opportunity to be a part of our conversation with financial services industry leaders, hear their stories, the challenges they've overcome and the invaluable advice they have for anyone interested in the financial world. Keep up to date with us by following Finance Friends podcast on Instagram and TikTok, and welcome to our listeners. Finance Friends with Fabian. Another episode here and we have the wonderful Kieran Berry from RiverX. Welcome, kieran, ceo of RiverX, founding partner, one of Australia's fastest growing investment advisory firms. How are you today?

Speaker 2: 0:48

Yeah, good, thank you, mate. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:50

Well, it's good to have you fly down from Sydney to catch up. So tell us a little bit about you, kieran. What's well, who are you and what do you do?

Speaker 2: 1:00

Yes, well, thanks for the intro. As Fabian said, my name is Kieran. I'm the CEO and Managing Director of RiverX. My background is, you know, I've worked in the financial services industry for over a decade now. Previously at one of Australia's largest growing mid-tier firms. But really I'm just a regular guy. Grew up in Western Sydney, played rugby league growing up very sort of ordinary background. But now I'm sort of busy building a business.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Fantastic, and well, that's one of our questions towards the end around what's our sporting team do follow. So we'll leave it there for now. But so what do you do? Obviously, you're a managing director of the firm, but you're also an investment advisor, is that correct? You still manage your own clients.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Yeah, that's right, yeah, so I transitioned out of a large firm a while ago. I maintain my own clients and I'm also responsible for the day-to-day running of the business as well, so it's a pretty full-on job. Recruitment, budgeting, regulatory compliance I'm looking over quite a few different things, but I'm really lucky that I've got a wonderful team around me as well. That's helping me build and scale quite quickly.

Speaker 1: 2:07

Fantastic, that's great, and maybe let's just touch on the investment advisory piece. So I imagine that's where you started and how did you get to become an investment advisor? And then we'll talk more around RiverX and being the CEO of the business and the day-to-day running of the organisation.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Okay. So I had a bit of like a different way into the industry. So most people you speak to are financial advisors that sort of went to a private school. They then got the tertiary education degree and then ultimately started off in admin and then basically made their way into advice, whether it be from a DA position or something different or an analyst position, and then they became an investment advisor later in their career. I was really different. When I left high school, whilst I was studying, I worked at a place called the Rivkin Report where I was actually selling a stock market newsletter. I then worked at a boutique very briefly, and then at the age of of 23, I approached CEO at what is now Shore Own Partners for a role and they basically gave me a desk and a phone and said start dialing. So I built my client book from zero and then over the years I've sort of scaled that up to a more significant client book and then that was what gave me the assets and, I guess, the financial capability to bootstrap and fund my own business.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Fantastic and as a 23-year-old saying you know, here's a list of people, give them a call, build a list of people and call them that's. I don't know how many 23-year-olds would be open to do that today, so be keen to hear a bit more about that and what did that involve.

Speaker 2: 3:45

Yeah, so I was quite lucky in the sense that I had worked at a business that involved calling clients and getting them to sign up for things before yeah. I knew that I wanted to transition out of the newsletter sort of end of the market and into advice, because it was a more scalable offering.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:56

I knew the deficiencies that were within the prior role as in. I knew what clients liked and I knew what they didn't particularly like about stock picking and I knew the natural progression was to become an advisor and actually manage wealth and look after clients. So I had a level of clarity early on in my life about sort of how an advice business should work in my mind. So that's what gave me the confidence to pick up the phone and start winning clients and it wasn't just as simple as like picking up the phone book back then. You know, I was lucky enough to walk into a firm that had a bunch of inactive old accounts and my strategy was to call a lot of those inactive accounts and convert them into active accounts and reinvigorate the client book.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Fantastic, and at what point in your time in your life did you realize that you wanted to become an investment advisor and also then maybe start your own business and create a larger financial services business?

Speaker 2: 4:52

So it was interesting. When I left high school I actually did my Cert III and IV in personal training. I thought I was going to get into the fitness industry. I thought I was going to get into the fitness industry. I then realized that that line of work back then didn't really have the type of revenue that I wanted or the type of work life I wanted to have.

Speaker 2: 5:11

I then went and saw a recruiter and interestingly, they gave me a go in recruitment and ultimately they found that wasn't for me and then I sort of took to finance. There was a role at the report business I mentioned. I then got in the door. That was my foot in the door and then after that the GFC actually happened. So I had a really good period of signing a lot of clients Around that 06, 07 time, 08, gfc hit and I actually tested the waters outside of finance. Very briefly, so, I tested a few other things, like I tested advertising.

Speaker 2: 5:45

I went and worked at GQ, tried to sell, like you know, print advertising. That was not for me. I then tried the buy now, pay later's. That wasn't for me and then ultimately I just, you know, I had those really short stints but then I gravitated back to finance. So I knew that was my home at that point.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Fantastic, that's great. And if you can look back now, is there an individual or a couple of individuals that have influenced your career and how you've got to where you are today? Can you share a little bit of insight about that person? If there is someone that comes to mind, I wouldn't say there's one person in particular.

Speaker 2: 6:18

But I've had the privilege of working with some very good executives over my career, or people who have been advisors and have gone on to become really good executives elsewhere, and I still keep in touch with some of those people to this day and I take a lot of good things away about my interactions with them. But I'm kind of on the opposite, where I've also worked with some other executives where I know what I don't want to bring to the firm, and knowing what I don't want is actually quite helpful for me, perhaps even more helpful than knowing what I actually want, because then I could curtail my career and my offering to my sort of investors and now advisors to create a completely different shared offering.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Yeah, and when you talk about what you don't want, what you definitely know you want, you know what you don't want, but you also know what you're looking for. So if you're a young or young, a young finance student or you know, and it's a da, which means dealer's assistant, and you want to become an advisor, what advice would you give to those people? Like what are some a bit of advice or critical skills?

Speaker 2: 7:21

you need to be successful in that role well, I think that that being able to analyse good investments is one part of it that's an important part of it but I think the most important part of it is being able to develop client relationships and relationships to help you build your business and client book. If I was a young guy coming into the industry now, I would suggest that you look to work with a firm that's going to nurture your growth and provide you with opportunities to grow.

Speaker 2: 7:45

There are a lot of financial institutions out there that create barriers to entry or you might be stuck in a position where you could be working there for four, five, six years without the opportunity for progression. There are other financial institutions out there that will allow you to progress according to your skill set and how good you are. So, look for those institutions that have those pathways for growth.

Speaker 1: 8:08

Yeah, definitely. Now. That's really good and insightful as well. I just want to touch on now, maybe, your role as the CEO of RiverX, and what does your day-to-day look like? Obviously, you're juggling lots of balls, but maybe talk to us about you know, how did your role change from being solely an investment advisor to now being a CEO and an investment advisor, and how does your day-to-day change?

Speaker 2: 8:33

Okay. So like I'm pretty grounded with health and fitness and it's not just about work for me, Like if I didn't have my other anchors then my work life wouldn't flow in the way it does.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:45

For me, like if I didn't have my other anchors, then my work life wouldn't flow in the way it does. So I've got two young kids, one that's one and one that's two and a half, plus I've got the business, plus I'm trying to do all these fitness events, plus I'm doing charity, all this sort of stuff, and the answer to that is like routine. So a day typically for me looks like a 4 am, start back at home, normally by 6, to then get the kids out of bed and ready for daycare. Yeah, I'm normally dropping them at daycare at 6.37. I'm normally at the office by 7.38 latest, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:14

And then my day-to-day work is. I'm normally Clearing my emails to zero every single day, catching up with key stakeholders within the business, and then I go about my daily routine of checking in with my advisors, seeing how they're going with their investment process, their client onboarding, keeping an eye on the financials, the funds under management, and also working with my support team, which includes EAs and DAs, to help book client meetings, client reviews, whilst keeping on top of my client book. That normally wraps up around 6 or 7 at night and.

Speaker 2: 9:45

I'm normally home for bath time for the kids.

Speaker 1: 9:48

Wow, it's a long day.

Speaker 2: 9:49

Yeah, yeah, but I'm kind of like you know, four hours a night type of guy. Yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:55

Yeah, that's well. I get up at 5.30 and I'm an eight-hour kind of guy. I'm normally up at 5.30. And I'm an eight-hour kind of guy, they're normally up at 5.30. And if we want to touch on that, I guess that's really important around. What's important to you? You talk about health and fitness and that's one of my values, and obviously family is really important to you. But I do see some professionals that maybe don't focus so much on health and fitness or don't focus so much on family, but do you believe that's sustainable to have that? Obviously, what's important to you is maybe not so important to other people, but when you're looking for advisors, is that what you're looking for? People that have similar values?

Speaker 2: 10:33

to you? Ideally, yes, but it's not the be all and end all and ultimately, while I'm striving to have balance, you can't always have balance when you're running a business or trying to build a client book. You know, when you're building a book of clients, it's very much akin to building a business, in the sense that you're out there trying to source talent, you're trying to find the right people that will help you further your business and your career, and there are times in your life where you can't have balance, like there have been times where I'll have to neglect one of those things.

Speaker 2: 11:04

You know, family is normally the last thing I'll neglect, but maybe skipping the gym will be the thing that comes up more often than not. But they're not the only things that you need to look for, like in this line of work. You need integrity, you need credibility, you need reliability, integrity, I think, being the main thing. Especially you're dealing with people's financial affairs. Yeah, so while those key pillars for me are important, I certainly don't think it's the be-all and end-all for what we look for in talent.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Yeah, no, that's really insightful and obviously investment markets is really important and I don't want to go and we're not talking about sort of specific advice. But you know, when you talk to your clients, what do you believe in? How do you run your money? Or is there one way to run clients' money, or is there multiple different ways? Or what do you look at when you talk to a client around investment management?

Speaker 2: 11:59

Yeah, so there's so many different ways in which you can manage a client's portfolio. You know I used to be very focused on stockbroking, which is where you're buying and selling direct equities and you're you know you're really just trading the domestic share market or the international share market. I would say in the last 12 to 18 months in particular, and just towards the end of my tenure, before I set up this business, I pivoted more to an asset allocation model where we're looking at alternatives in addition to traditional assets and I'd probably have a split, something like 45% traditional assets, which is your domestic equities, fixed income, cash, and then I was looking at 55% in alternatives, which is your commercial real estate, private credit, private equity, venture, hedge funds, and I think that split will grow the alternatives market will probably continue to grow as our market becomes more sophisticated in Australia.

Speaker 2: 12:50

The reason why I picked that model is it gave my clients access to a broader range of investments and investment solutions. It was more scalable for me because I wasn't sitting there watching company earnings. I had active managers in there doing the job for me and. I found that over time, having that balance across alternate asset classes really helped smooth out the investment returns for my clients. So, selfishly, that meant that I could sleep better at night. But also it made sure they could sleep better at night too.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Yeah, definitely. Well, I guess every client has different needs and objectives, but if you can make sure that you provide the best investment solution for each of your clients, then everyone benefits.

Speaker 2: 13:29

That's right. Yeah, and the main game here is obviously benefiting the clients. If the client wins, everyone wins.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Yeah, definitely, and just maybe tell us a little bit about you've touched on your family life. You've got two young kids, You're into health and fitness and I have seen you know on your socials that you know you do do some work fitness events, yeah, so maybe let's touch on a little bit of that. Why is health and fitness important to you? I know why it's important to me and I know why it's important to life.

Speaker 2: 14:08

But obviously you know what's um. Why is health and fitness important to you?

Speaker 2: 14:09

it's kind of always been part of who I am and what I do. So I've always been competitive. I always played sport growing up. Anyone who's worked with me before knows it's a one or two a day regime, but it's that grounding, that that discipline, that regime that keeps me there. And I find that you know, when everything's stacking up for me like health, fitness, nutrition then work normally stacks up as well. So it's just one of those things where everything tends to fall into place. I also find I'm not getting distracted by, I'm not doing the long lunches, you're not drinking very much, and that means you have a better sort of clarity of thought. So that means that I'm getting a better quality of work output as well, and it normally means I'm getting better outcomes.

Speaker 2: 14:47

So that's why that's a really important anchor. And on the work front, I normally try and include a handful of fitness events each year that we all get involved in, and we normally try and associate some sort of charitable works with that too. So recently we did the City to Surf in Sydney. We ran as a team, I mean, we started as a team, but I kind of took off.

Speaker 3: 15:08

It's like you know, it finishes a team.

Speaker 2: 15:10

But yeah, we do things like that and we did the High Rocks fitness event in Sydney recently, you know, I think it's really good for camaraderie in amongst your team and it's just something good to get the team out of the office together as well.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Yeah, that positivity as well. Mindset clear the mind, work hard, that's fantastic. So you touched on. You played rugby league a little bit. So rugby league, talk to us about sort of you growing up in Western Sydney playing rugby league. What got you in? Obviously, well, I'm a Melbourne guy, I'm an AFL guy. But, you know, if you grew up in Western Sydney, it's probably league and maybe a bit of cricket in the off-season.

Speaker 2: 15:45

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:46

But what made you get into rugby league?

Speaker 2: 15:49

Yeah, so you know. All of my friends at school played rugby league growing up. All the guys I went to the gym with played rugby league Before that. I was actually into competitive swimming.

Speaker 1: 15:59

Okay.

Speaker 2: 15:59

So you know, when I was in school my parents had me in squad every morning and night. You know you'd be swimming 5, 10k a day over the course of those two sessions if you're in the gold squad and you have to train out at Homebush, at Olympic Park, and then, as I got older, like all, the all the cool kids did boxing and played rugby.

Speaker 2: 16:18

So that's what I did as well, um, as I started to sort of not be as competitive on the swimming front, um, but you know, being in western sydney, I played out at campbell town collies. I then played at narellan, jets and cabramatta two blues and these are all like western sydney teams like you're playing with a very sort of rough group of guys out there. So naturally you had to get into boxing at the same time, yeah, but that meant I gravitated towards the local teams. So you know, I did some like rep footy out at West and stuff like that, but I was never a superstar on the footy pitch, it was just something that I loved doing.

Speaker 1: 16:52

Yeah, and what did sport playing sport, growing up and both individual sport and team sport teach you in your life and your career to date?

Speaker 2: 17:04

Like again, it's back to discipline yeah, and that's what it was and routine, and it also taught me the importance of achieving small and achievable goals. So when you're playing sport or when you're training for an event, it's all about small wins. It's all about getting small, measurable, achievable wins that ultimately culminate to a larger goal, and that has a lot of parallels between what we do when we're running businesses or managing client books that compounding effect of getting good results for your clients or the compounding effect of getting good results in your business.

Speaker 1: 17:35

Yeah, and which rugby league team do you follow? Unfortunately, it's the West Tigers. Oh, so struggling a bit, so I think they've got the spoon locked in.

Speaker 2: 17:46

So yeah, I've got a soft spot for that.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Yeah Well, you never know, maybe next year might be the year. I doubt it, and we like to finish. Obviously, I'm a Melburnian and one thing that I do a lot of is have coffees, and I always wonder what's your coffee order? If someone wants to take you out for a coffee, kieran, what?

Speaker 2: 18:06

would you order Long black, long black. I've got to try and keep the weight down. If I have like an almond cap or something, it's game over for the rest of the day.

Speaker 3: 18:17

Um, you know we're not as sophisticated as you on the coffee, but we've got all right coffee in sydney.

Speaker 1: 18:19

Fantastic well to our listeners. Thank you very much, kieran. Thank you for coming in. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. But just maybe, just before we finish, just give us a maybe a little bit more of a rundown of river x and, and what you do, give your business a bit of a plug yeah, sure, sure.

Speaker 2: 18:33

So RiverX is a wealth management firm. We're currently based in Sydney and looking at other locations around the country. We provide advice to wholesale and retail clients on traditional assets and alternatives, as we said before. So it's a holistic wealth management solution and we're actively out in the market bringing on advisors at the moment. So that's why I'm here in Melbourne and I'm sure I'll be around the country a little bit more often.

Speaker 1: 18:57

Well, fantastic. We look forward to finance friends with Fabian's, look forward to seeing your continuous growth and I'm sure you'll be. You know, continue to be a market leader, so for our listeners. Thanks, kieran, for coming in and keep an eye on our socials and keep an eye out for our podcast for next week. Thank you for joining Cheers. Thanks, david, cheers.

Speaker 3: 19:22

Disclaimer this podcast exists for informational and entertainment purposes only. The personal opinions of the speaker and guests do not represent the view of any other party. If this recording contains reference to financial products, that reference does not constitute advice nor recommendations and may not be relied upon. Thank you.