Openmarkets makes private wealth play

Openmarkets is expanding into private wealth, with plans to attract 50 financial advisers over the next three years.

Openmarkets' private wealth advisory has onboarded several new advisers across Australia in the past 12 months as part of a strategic push into the wealth management sector. Arima Investment Partners and Cahill Private Clients are some of the businesses now operating as corporate authorised representatives under the Openmarkets AFSL.

The offering is described as a product-agnostic, turnkey AFSL solution and allows advisers to operate their own businesses, licensed by Openmarkets.

"Our private wealth business is designed to empower advisers with the autonomy to build and scale their own practices, while leveraging Openmarkets' depth of infrastructure and expertise. Advisers own their client relationships and have the flexibility to run their business in a way that best serves their clients," chief executive Dan Jowett said.

"Unlike traditional banks and brokers, we don't carry many of the high overhead costs of legacy structures. This enables us to deliver a better commercial outcome for advisers, ensuring they can focus on growing their client portfolios rather than navigating institutional constraints."

The group plans to grow its adviser count to 50 over the next three years, saying the aim is to give advisers the autonomy they value, while clients benefit from the resources and scale offered by Openmarkets.

The new business comes as Openmarkets plans to list on the Nasdaq.

Earlier this year it signed an agreement with special purpose acquisition companies Lake Superior Acquisition Corp to merge. The deal represented an estimated enterprise value of $420 million.

Openmarkets is also looking to expand into decentralised finance, starting with the fractionalisation of assets, like funds, real estate, private equity and private credit.