Kurt has over 20 years experience in the financial services industry. Kurt is a financial planner (15 years continuous experience) and Principal of his own Financial Planning Practice - Smyth Financial Service. Prior to this he held senior advisory roles with ANZ Securities and Macquarie Equities. Kurt has also played a senior practice development role with National Mutual where he was responsible for establishing over 40 planners with National Mutual Financial Planning and Charter Financial Planning.
Kurt has been actively involved in senior roles within the adviser technology sector, including corporate superannuation, financial planning software, stockbrokering and portfolio systems, and revenue management systems. Thus experience has ranged across systems and business analysis, product management and sales and marketing.
His most recent role was the Marketing Executive for Australia's leading adviser revenue system provider - DMS. In this role he oversaw (over a two and a half year period) a doubling of DMS's dealer clients and the successful establishment of DMS's presence in both the Adviser and Fund Manager revenue management system markets.
Kurt is actively involved with the Financial Services Institute of Australiasia (Finsia) where he is a Senior Fellow, serves on the Victorian Regional Council and leactures in the Institutes Financial Planning Diploma. His is a former Director of ANZ Securities Retirement Benefits Fund, a former Commissioned Officer in the Army Reserve, and founding Director of Australia's leading independent electricity industry demand aggregator - Energy Response.
Peters back ground as a Chartered Accountant, Financial Planner and National Business Development Manager has provided him with a wide range of skills and experience within the financial services industry.
In his roles as a Chartered Accountant he worked for a mid tier accounting firm BKR Walker Wayland, in their business services team where he helped finalize accounts, prepare minutes and complete tax returns for various companies, superannuation’s funds, family trusts and individuals.
As a financial adviser he worked with one of Sydney’s leading wealth management firms Halliday Financial Management, which specialized in providing advice to high net worth individuals. In his role he worked with clients to implement Managed Discretionary Accounts as well as help the firm market and distribute its own structured products to the wider market.
In the last two years he has worked as the National Business Development Manager for a Commission Software company Dealer Management Systems where his roll involved working with Advisers, Licensees and Product Providers to help them implement effective revenue management systems. During this time DMS experienced rapid growth doubling its client base to have over 140 licensees processing commission for over 5,500 advisers on its books.
Outside of work, he is a Commissioned Officer of the Army Reserve, a member of Izingari Cricket Club and is an active member of the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club, having recently competed in the Australian Open for both singles and doubles for Royal Tennis in January. He is also Treasurer of the Australian Royal Tennis Association (ARTA).
Phaedra has over 15 years experience in the financial planning industry which has provided her with a wide range of skills, from Financial Planning Practice Manager with RetireInvest, through to QLD/WA Sales Manager for Easy Brokerage and Easy Dealer through to Business Development Manager for Infocus Financial Planning Dealer Group.
She has gained a vast range of experience from business systems, marketing, sales and product management. During this time she has developed key relationships with planners through out QLD and WA.
Phaedra has an extensive management backgroud and brings to the business exceptional organizational and people skills. She has developed these unique office experiences from managing one of the largest Roller Skating Centres in Brisbane to managing Architectural offices for over 13 years to finally finding her true call in Financial Planning.
David Bird, Dip FS (FP) - SA Rep
MOB: 0404 876 702E:david@classleadingsolutions
David is a qualified financial adviser, with a Diploma of Financial Services in (Financial Planning) and a certificate III in Financial Advising. He has background which spans over 20 years in the financial services industry where he has worked for a variety of companies in senior management roles including the National Australia Bank, Queensland Industry Development Corporate, Suncorp Metway, Adelaide Bank, Adelaide Funds Management and Australia Skandia.
Prior to working with CLS, David was the State Manager for Skandia funds management for 6 years. In this role he was responsible for establishing and building relationship with Advisers in both SA and WA. This involved practice management, technical and marketing support to small, medium and large financial planning firms. He has a wealth of experience in software, data migration, product, funds management and marketing.
Shaun has had over ten years experience working in the financial services industry. He has spent time at ING, Westpac and MLC in various customer service and customer relationship roles. Whilst at MLC, Shaun was intrinsically involved in the implementation, training and ongoing support of AdviserCentral (Visiplan) into the MLC adviser network. This project was one of the largest (1,400 advisers) and fastest (9 months) rollouts of a financial planning software solution this industry has seen. During his time at MLC, Shaun also completed his Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning)More recently Shaun has worked as the national BDM for InvestmentLink. In this role he worked closely with advisers, dealer groups and product providers to assist them with their data needs.
Outside of work, Shaun enjoys all sports especially golf and cricket being a regular for the Epping Bulls cricket club.
