As the financial year comes to a close, it gives us the perfect opportunity to review all the activities that have occurred over the last 12 months and announce an exciting change that is about to take place.
We’ve had promotions, milestones, weddings, babies, seminars and conferences.
Plus, we are about to farewell Chris White as he retires and welcome Ben Rossi to his new position as Managing Director.
Join us as we take a moment to look back at the amazing year we’ve had at First Financial and we look to the future with a new leader at the helm.
Staff promotions, returns and milestones
We have always taken pride in our in-house training and our dedication to supporting staff as they find the career that truly suits them. As our current Managing Director Chris White says, “We don’t hire advisers, we breed them ourselves.”
This year we have seen some great internal promotions as our team members progress and develop their skills. James Wrigley started the new financial year with his promotion to Principal on the 1st July. Joining the management team from his role as Senior Adviser was the next step in his progression after more than a decade with the company.
We also welcomed three new Financial Advisers this year with Adela Ngai, Stefanie Costa and Nicole Costa advancing through our adviser training program with flying colours and embracing their new roles.
Plus, Harley Leslie and James Grixti both moved from our client service team into Associate Adviser roles and are enjoying the challenges of their new positions.
This year we also welcomed back some past staff members. Adam Ezerins, Paul Seidl and Sean Curran have all returned to the First Financial family… and we couldn’t be happier to have them back in the team!
To top it off, we have celebrated an incredible staff milestone. David Jackson, Principal, has been with the company for 20 years. David’s dedication to his clients is unwavering. He loves to see them achieve the life they want in retirement and enjoys helping them “fulfil their destiny.”
Weddings and babies
It’s been a busy year for our extended family, too! With four separate weddings and four new babies, the First Financial clan continues to grow.
Adam Ezerins married Laura Murray in November, surrounded by friends and family. Stefanie Costa and Alfie Falleti tied the knot in December with a wonderful first kiss and lots of dancing. William Hume and Pip Kirby spent their New Year’s Eve at the altar and enjoyed a relaxing honeymoon on Hamilton Island. Then in January, Emily Still married Sean Vincent in a fun-filled ceremony at Melbourne Docklands. So much love it makes our hearts sing!
Plus, we are all proud aunts and uncles to four beautiful little girls. Honi and Chris had sweet little Mia, Miranda and Brendan welcomed lovely Isla Kydd. Annie from our super admin team had adorable Athena and Rebekah from our operations team had cute little Hannah with Chris Pomaroff. We are sure the girls will always be surrounded by love and adoration.
Pathway to Wealth Seminar and Principals Conference
In March we held a highly successful free information session for people ready to start building their wealth. With a turnout of almost 35 people, we recognise the need for this type of service within our industry.
We provided simple, effective and practical strategies for achieving financial success. We discussed property, shares, superannuation, negative gearing and debt management.
The feedback we received was extremely positive and we are looking forward to hosting similar events in the coming year.
Our annual Principals Conference was held over 5 days from 20th to 24th May on the delightfully sunny Gold Coast. During the Conference, our management team examined the inner workings of the business… what are our strengths and where are opportunities for improvement. David Jackson elaborates,
“We reflected on where the business is at, what we have done well, and how we adapt to future changes to improve and grow our business. To ensure we remain ahead of the curve it is important to plan, and we discussed various relevant issues.
Underlying all our discussions was the impact it will have on our staff and how it will enhance the client experience. There were times of intense conversation, but also time to relax and enjoy each other’s company and have a few laughs.”
Chris White’s retirement… Ben Rossi, our new Managing Director
It is with mixed emotions that we announce the departure of our longstanding Managing Director, Chris White. We are excited for him to be able to enjoy a richly fulfilling retirement, but we will miss his daily guidance and expertise. He is planning on moving to Queensland where his new home borders a golf course… so we know where we’ll find him if we ever need him!
Chris reflects on some of the highlights of his time with First Financial,
“Helping our staff develop their careers… over the years we have always had the philosophy of promoting internally wherever possible. Giving our younger staff the opportunity to progress up from client services to advisers has been very rewarding.
Having the foresight to get our own licence (AFSL) four years ago was definitely a highlight for me, as it removed any confusion about who is giving advice… there is no third-party licensee to have a say over what we could or couldn’t recommend for our clients. This made it easy to act in our clients’ best interests.
It’s been a great pleasure getting to know my clients really well and establishing relationships with them that span in excess of 15 years.
In retirement I am looking forward to playing lots of golf… lots of walking to the beach and swimming… looking forward to lots of visitors from Melbourne and continuing to stay involved with First Financial by doing some consulting work.”
We are pleased that Ben Rossi, one of our highly experienced Principals, will be taking over the role of Managing Director once Chris leaves on 12th July. Ben is dedicated to making sure First Financial maintains its strong ethical approach to wealth management.
It’s been an incredible 12 months and we are looking forward to another rewarding year ahead as we continue working closely with all our clients. If you have any questions about our team progression or want to send a farewell message to Chris please do not hesitate to contact us here. Read more First Financial articles.
