Past Events

We held our 16th Annual Golf Day at Riversdale Golf Club on Friday 16th March 2018, attended by 83 of our keen golfing clients. We were blessed with perfect weather for the day.

It was great to have some new players join us this year. The course was in perfect condition and we had some terrific prizes on offer. Everyone had a fantastic day. The competition was Ambrose, and the winning score on the day was 55.44, followed by Runners Up scoring 57.42.

Congratulations to Nick Walsh, Patrick Malcolm, Jenny Eddy, Jim Fuller – The Winning Team!

The Runners Up with a score of 57.42 were Mark Tully, David Brookes, Anne Brookes, Paul Kaiser

3rd Place with a score of 57.83 – John Trevorrow, Tini McKimm, Russell McKimm, Dan Moore (absent)

4th Place with a score of 58.16 – Peter Ferguson with Witi Suma & Mai Davies. Team members absent were Bill Patterson, Les Monk, Peter Keppell

NAGA with a score of 70.83 – Ingrid Crichton, Peter Favaloro, Marysia Paszkiewicz, Peter Hayes

Winner Straightest Drive on the 18th hole – Tony Rawlings

Winner Longest Drive on the 6th hole – John Trevorrow & 15th hole – Jan Ellery

Winner Nearest The Pin on 14th hole – Rod McFarlane, Marysia Paszkiewicz – 3rd hole, Steve Fletcher 17th hole

We have been holding annual movie nights for 16 years, and this year we held two nights on Wednesday 29th November and Monday 4th December at the Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell. This is always a very popular event and we had 215 clients attending on each night. The evening started with pre- movie canapés followed by the screening of Murder On The Orient Express.

Our clients had a chance to catch up and chat with members of our team and also with other clients that they have met over the years at GFM events. The feedback from the night was excellent, everyone had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which most thought was outstanding.

On Friday 4th August, we held a very special function, perhaps the most special function in the history of our business. We celebrated the career and retirement of Tony Gilham almost exactly 44 years after he commenced our business back in July 1973.

Tony’s retirement dinner was held at the Park Hyatt with 120 attendees. It was lovely to have Tony’s whole family attend the evening including his wife Jewel, children Danielle, Carissa and Rohan and their partners. We were also thrilled to have many of our longer standing clients in attendance, most who have been clients for over 30 years, and incredibly many who have been with us for over 40 years. Naturally, the whole GFM team was in attendance as well.

On the evening we had a video testimonial for Tony along with four speeches. Many thanks to Ray Menzies, Andrew Schoenmaekers, Ken Planner and Bryan Meehan for their wonderful speeches. Tony also got up and spoke towards the end of the evening and spoke very graciously about his career in Financial Planning.

Tony has had a glittering 44 year career. Anybody who knows Tony is aware of his incredible work ethic and commitment. But on top of the hard work, Tony is considered by his peers as being one of the industry most technically gifted experts. Tony has been a trailblazer of the industry as an early adopter of Superannuation and Self Managed Super Funds, but above all else it is Tony’s “client first” approach which ensured our business grew strongly.

Whilst Tony has retired from the day to day activities of the business, Tony will continue on in his capacity as a member of our Investment Committee and remain a regular attendee of GFM events.

On behalf of all the team and our clients, Happy Retirement Tony!

Tony’s Family 40 year plus clients of GFM The GFM Team

We held our 15th Annual Golf Day at Riversdale Golf Club on Friday 17th March 2017, attended by 87 of our keen golfing clients. We were blessed with pristine weather for the day.

It was great to have some new players join us this year. The course was in perfect condition and we had some terrific prizes on offer. The competition was Ambrose, and the winning score on the day was 54.20, followed by Runners Up scoring 56.70.

Congratulations to Olivia Fleming, Chris McGibbon, Patrick Malcolm, Jenny Eddy – The Winning Team!

The Runners Up with a score of 56.70 were Tony Harford, Ric Casey, Tony Watson, Damian Craven

3rd Place with a score of 57.50 – Peter Hayes, Trevor Pearson, Shane Power, Peter Barr

4th Place with a score of 59.40 – Max Sutton, Liz Sutton, Rhonda Pelzer, Paul Pelzer

NAGA with a score of 72.90 – Anne Perazzo, Sue Callinan, Steve Callinan

Winner Straightest Drive on the 18th hole – Allen Broad

Winner Longest Drive on the 6th hole – Paul Hammond & 15th hole – Libby Weir

Winner Nearest The Pin on 14th hole – Chris McGibbon, Nick Walsh – 3rd hole, Michael Renwick 17th hole

We have been holding annual movie nights for 15 years and this year we held 2 nights on Monday 5th December and Wednesday 7th December at the Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell. This is always a very popular event and we had 157 clients attending on each night. The evening started with pre-movie canapés following by the screening of ALLIED.

Our clients had a chance to catch up and chat with members of our team and also with other clients that they have met over the years at GFM events. The feedback from the night was excellent, everyone had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which most thought was outstanding.

We held our Estate Planning and Centrelink Update Seminar on Monday 5th September at Leonda By The Yarra with 160 clients and guests in attendance. The two topics covered were Estate Planning and the Upcoming Changes to the Centrelink Age Pension.

The feedback from the attendees was excellent. They found the presentation very interesting and informative and appreciated having a lawyer present.

Our special guest presenter was Andrew Lord, Director of Lord Commercial Lawyers who gave a general overview of Estate Planning and specifically covered the Tips and Traps of SMSF Estate Planning.

Paul Nicol provided an overview of the Centrelink Age Pension System and the changes from 1st January 2017 which will impact almost all Centrelink Age Pension Recipients.

This was a very detailed presentation. Andrew and Paul discussed the following:

• Benefits of a good estate plan
• Preparing a Will
• Common mistakes with Wills & Estate Planning
• Enduring Power of Attorney
• Testamentary Trusts
• Role & Responsibilities of Executor
• Asset protection for beneficiaries
• What Happens to your superannuation on death
• The best superannuation/SMSF Beneficiary options
• An overview of the Centrelink system and the Age Pension
• The upcoming decrease in the Assets Test thresholds
• The upcoming increase in the Assets Test taper rate
• Maximising your Age Pension entitlements

Estate Planning is a complex area and it’s very important to have an understanding of all the aspects involved in having a good estate plan.

If you would like a copy of the presentation, please call our office on 9809 1221.

We held our 14th Annual Golf Day at Riversdale Golf Club on Monday 2nd May 2016. We were all happy to have played on a dry and mostly sunny day after the extreme wet and windy weather conditions that caused the cancellation of our original date in March.

Having been blessed with perfect days every year until now, we have been super lucky.

It was great to have some new players join us this year. The course was in perfect condition and we had some terrific prizes on offer. Everyone had a fantastic day. The competition was Ambrose and the scores were very close this year. The winning score on the day was 58.2, followed by Runners Up scoring 58.75.

Congratulations to Aaron Hallifax, David Newnham, Ryan Lapish, Ron Yee, Rob Allen – The Winning Team!

The Runners Up with a score of 58.75 were Peter Ferguson, Daniel Ferguson, Bruce Williams, Andrew Schoenmaekers

3rd Place with a score of 58.8 – Phil Turner, Morton Browne, Vin Russo, Jim Fuller

4th Place with a score of 59.1 – Ralph Colasante, Mark Alway, Frank Clark, John Negri

NAGA – with a score of 68.10 – Frank Demaria, Libby Weir, Tony Weir, Doug Haycroft

Winner Longest Drive on the 6th hole – Ron Yee

Winner Longest Drive on 15th hole – Anne Kaiser

Winner Straightest Drive on the 18th hole – Tony Rawlings

2nd Longest Drive on 15th hole – Kellie Rawlings

Winner Nearest the Pin on 17th hole – Alan Dow & 3rd hole – Vin Russo

Winner Nearest the Pin on 14th hole – Daniel Ferguson

We held our second Quarterly Business Lunch for the year on Wednesday 16th March 2016 at Leonda by the Yarra.  This was well attended by 148 clients and guests.

Our special guest presenter was high profile economist Shane Oliver.  Shane is the Head of Investment Strategy and the Chief Economist at AMP Capital.  Shane has extensive experience analysing economic and investment cycles and what current positioning means for the return potential for different asset classes such as shares, bonds, property and infrastructure. Shane is a regular media commentator on economic and investment market issues and engages regularly with investors at public events and forums.

With calendar year 2016 starting on an indifferent note for investment markets, Shane provided a thorough understanding of what is causing the current volatility.

Shane provided a market and economic update and his presentation covered the following:

• 2015 saw constrained but positive returns – Balanced Growth super Funds returned an average 5.3% (post tax & fees)
• It has been a rough start to the year for shares – Same concerns as last year: Chinese Growth, Fed, RMB, $US and flow on to commodity prices.
• Economic and Investment Outlook
  • Okay but uneven global growth – 2015: 3.1%, 2016: 3.0%
  • 2016 GDP Growth.  China 6.5%, US 2%, Eurozone 1.75%, Japan 1%, Australia 2.5%
  • Interest rates remain low, maybe only one Fed hike this year, further easing from ECB, BoJ, PBOC and RBA
  • Short term bounce in $A, but still headed down to $US0.60
  • Bonds and term deposits offer low returns and are not attractive
  • Short term downside risk in shares, but should provide strong return opportunity as global recession avoided.
• Global Business Conditions Uneven – Manufacturing Weak, Services slowing a bit too
• Oil in a secular downswing. Bad for producers but consumers benefit.
• US Economic Growth bouncing around 2% – Manufacturing hit but may be bottoming
• The US Job Market is still solid – But weak global growth, slowing CAPEX & low inflation likely to constrain the Fed this year.
• The Eurozone looking okay with even more ECB support likely in March
• Chinese growth has slowed but not collapsed – Stimulus measures are helping.
• Continued slow growth means inflation will remain low, central banks Dovish
• The collapse in Australia’s export price is weighing heavily  on national income
• The Australian Economy – Stronger than predicted
• Reversal of the two speed economy = Rebalancing
• Why a severe global bear market is unlikely?
  • Share valuations are okay
  • A recession is unlikely – they are normally preceded by imbalances and significant monetary tightening, neither of which have been seen
  • Normal lags suggest the boost to energy consumers from lower oil prices will provide a growth boost this year
  • Monetary conditions are set to remain very easy… expect only one Fed hike this year at most
  • There is a lot of pessimism around
• Sharemarket valuations are fine
• Australian Shares are offering a very high cash flow versus bank deposits
• With interest rates & bond yields remaining very low and the “search for yield” is likely to go further
• Crash calls for Australian Property? Expensive housing and high debt but years of undersupply
• 9 Rules for Investors to keep in mind
  • The power of compound interest
  • There is always a cycle – bear markets happen
  • Invest for the long term – consider goal based investing if you can’t
  • Diversify
  • Turn down the noise
  • Buy low and sell high – selling after a 20% fall just locks in a loss
  • Beware the crowd at extremes – shares bottom at the point of maximum bearishness
  • Focus on investments providing decent and sustainable cash flows
  • Seek advice

The feedback from the attendees was excellent.  They thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and found it extremely informative.

If you didn’t attend the session and would like to receive a copy of the presentation emailed to you, please call Mai on 9809 1221.

We held our 14th Annual Movie night on Wednesday 2nd December 2015 at the Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell. This is always a very popular event and more so this year being the James Bond movie – SPECTRE. It was attended by 259 clients. The evening started with pre-movie drinks and canapés followed by the screening of SPECTRE.

Our clients had a chance to catch up and chat with members of our team and also with other clients they have met over the years at other GFM events. The feedback from the night was excellent, everyone had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which most thought was outstanding.

We held our 13th annual golf day at Riversdale Golf Club on Friday the 13th March 2015, attended by 79 of our keen golfing clients. Once again we were blessed with perfect weather for the day.

It was great to have some new players join us this year. The course was in perfect condition and we had some terrific prizes on offer. Everyone had a fantastic day. The competition was Ambrose, and the winning score on the day was 56.28.

Congratulations to Terry Melbourne, Rod McFarlane, Rob Burrough, Peter Ferguson, the winning team!

The Runners Up with a score of 57.1 were Trevor Pearson, Joy Pearson, John Boston, Peter Bell

3rd Place – Kellie Rawlings, Tony Rawlings, Tony Watson, Darrell Hall

4th Place – David Brookes, Anne Brookes, Damian Craven, Paul Kaiser

NAGA – Ross Fortune, Jan Fortune, Vin Squires, Marysia Paszkiewicz

Winner Longest Drive on 6th hole – Rowan Blyth

Winner Longest Drive 15th hole – Jane Blyth

Winner Straightest Drive on the 18th hole – Tony Rawlings

Winner Nearest The Pin on 3rd hole – David Harris

Winner Nearest The Pin on 14th hole – Jenny Watson

Winner Nearest The Pin on 17th hole – Tony Weir

We held our first Quarterly Business Lunch for the year on Investment Opportunities in Australian “Small Cap” Shares on Monday 16th February 2015 at Riversdale Golf Club. This was well attended by 87 clients who are investors in the fund and the feedback was excellent.

Our special guest presenter was Nick Greenway, Investment Manager for the Ironbark Karara Australian Small Companies Fund.

Australian Small Companies or “small cap” stocks, are classified as those companies listed on the ASX and in size order, ranked between 100 and 300 of the approximate 2,200 listed on our sharemarket.

Most investors focus their attention on the top 20 or 30 stocks on our sharemarket, and basically ignore the opportunities presented by some of the fastest growing companies in Australia. And many of these small cap companies are thriving businesses, and not necessarily very small. The largest company in the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Index has a market capitalisation of $4.2 billion, and the average size company in the Index is almost $700 million.

There are great opportunities in the small cap part of the market, because most of the large broking houses don’t bother to do much research on these smaller companies, naturally concentrating their efforts on probably the top 50 stocks, and a skilled small cap investment manager that is prepared to do their own research, can often uncover some excellent opportunities.

The depth of understanding of the companies they invest in, and the background research undertaken by Nick and the Ironbark Karara Team sets them apart from the average small cap manager. There is no element of luck involved with the very impressive track record of this Fund, just pure hard work and skill.

Nick’s presentation provided a very good insight as to how a professional small cap fund manager develops an investment process that works. He covered the following:

• Market outlook for small Australian companies over the coming 12 months
• Why good small cap managers can consistently outperform the market average
• An overview of some of the preferred stocks held within the Ironbark Karara portfolio
• Why successful, small cap companies can grow much faster than their large cap cousins
• Those companies that are growing strongly even though the Australian economy is slightly subdued
• An insight into the investment processes and analytical framework of the Ironbark Karara Investment Team

Nick talked openly on the more attractive stocks held in the Ironbark Karara portfolio, and why he thinks they will continue to deliver good results.

We held our 13th Annual Movie night on Wednesday 3rd December 2014 at the Rivoli Cinemas in Camberwell. This is always a very popular event and was attended by 212 clients. The evening started with a walk up the red carpet, pre-movie drinks, canapés and then the advance screening of the The Imitation Games.

Our clients had a chance to catch up and chat with members of our team and also with other clients they have met over the years at other at GFM events. The feedback from the night was excellent, everyone had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

We held our Market Update & Outlook for 2015 Seminar on Wednesday 12th November at Riversdale Golf Club with 115 clients and guests in attendance. The seminar covered investment market activity during 2014 and the outlook for 2015.

Our special guest presenter was Matthew Sherwood, who is the Head of Investment Markets Research for Perpetual Investments, the largest independent Fund Manager in Australia. In his role, Matthew conducts research on and acts as an external voice on the Australian and global economies, financial markets and portfolio strategies.

We are very fortunate to have had Matthew present to our clients for the fifth year and the feedback again was excellent.

Equity and property markets have staged a phenomenal recovery over the last 2½ years, but we are now starting to see increased levels of volatility, and fear that asset prices may have peaked for the time being.

Matt provided an overview of the global economic backdrop, and how this is likely to affect investment markets over the next few years.

Matt’s presentation covered the following:

• A stunning recovery – but where are those earnings?
• The environment – a grinding improvement
• A lower growth world means a lower return world
• European debt and deflation
• Central banks and their stimulus drug
• US profits and margins are already at cyclical highs
• Australia’s “growth hole” is close to being filled, with Governments doing more than necessary.
• The RBA will remain on hold for an extended period
• The FY 2015 earnings outlook is more challenging than FY 2014
• Share returns will increasingly be driven by earnings
• Never underestimate the power of income
• What’s the biggest driver of dividends? – The Economy.
• The global economy is constructive for global shares
• The problem is the state of global balance sheets – debt is rising and it is deflationary

Long term returns from equity and property markets have averaged between 9% and 12% pa over the last 30 years, but going forward, returns might only be in the band of 6% to 8% pa. Capital growth will be harder to come by, and there will be a significant focus on the income generated from an investment portfolio, and the reliability of that income.

As this was our last seminar for the year we concluded the evening with some celebratory drinks and canapes. Our team enjoyed the opportunity to have a drink and a chat with our clients.

We held our Estate Planning seminar on Monday 18 August at the Leonda by the Yarra in Hawthorn with 150 clients and guests in attendance. We changed our venue from Riversdale Golf Club on this occasion as we had overwhelming response and didn’t want disappoint anyone.

The feedback from the attendees was excellent. They found the presentation very interesting and informative and appreciated having a lawyer present.

Our special guest presenter was Andrew Lord, Principal of Lord Law who gave a general overview of Estate Planning.

Andrew personally practices in the areas of Wills, Deceased Estates and Enduring Powers of Attorney.

Tony Gilham also presented and specifically focussed on SMSF Estate Planning issues.

The following topics were covered:

• Benefits of a good estate plan
• Preparing a Will
• Common mistakes with Wills & Estate Planning
• Enduring Power of Attorney
• Testamentary Trusts
• Role & Responsibilities of Executor
• Asset protection for beneficiaries
• What Happens to your superannuation on death
• The best superannuation/SMSF Beneficiary options
• Tax Treatment of Superannuation Death Benefits

Estate Planning is a complex area and it’s very important to have an understanding of all the aspects involved in having a good estate plan.

Click here to view the Estate Planning presentation

If you have any questions in relation to the presentation or would like to make a time to see one of our financial planners, please call our office on 9809 1221 or click here and complete the contact form and we will be in touch.

We held our 12th annual golf day at Riversdale Golf Club on Friday the 14th March, attended by 79 of our keen golfing clients. This was the largest field we have had in the 12 years. We were blessed with perfect weather for the day.

It was great to have a few more ladies and some new players join us this year. Everyone had a fantastic day. The course was in perfect condition. The competition was Ambrose, and the winning score on the day was 57.50.

Congratulations to Brian Greenhalgh, John Negri, Tony Weir, Libby Weir, the winning team!

Photograph: Tony Weir, Libby Weir, Brian Greenhalgh, John Negri.

The Runners Up with a score of 57.875 were Noel Ebery, Ross Fortune, Jan Fortune, Vin Squires.

Photograph: Vin Squires, Ross Fortune, Jan Fortune, Noel Ebery.

On the 25th October, we held a surprise testimonial dinner for Tony Gilham at the Park Hyatt, to commemorate Tony’s 40th year in the financial planning industry. 102 of our longest standing clients were in attendance.

To commemorate Tony’s 40th anniversary in business, we decided to organise the dinner for Tony, but keep it as a surprise.

So walking through the lobby of the Park Hyatt, Jewel casually opened the door to the Trilogy Room, and standing just inside the doorway were 102 people waiting in anticipation.

Because it was a very special occasion, a lot of planning went into this, and the secrecy around the night was paramount. Tony admits that he had no idea whatsoever, and didn’t even have a hint that anything special was happening to celebrate this significant milestone.

The venue, the Trilogy Room at the Park Hyatt, was superb. The wine and food was first class, we had a live band, and quite a few presentations were made.

Our clients were selected, based predominantly on the number of years that they have dealt with us, and the vast majority have been clients for more than 30 years. In fact we had one client in attendance that had been with us for the whole 40 years, and a couple of others that have notched up 39 years.

As a business, we are extremely proud of the longevity of our client base, and we think we must be doing something right. Superannuation and financial planning is obviously a topic of importance for most people, and we think it’s just easier when you build good, long term relationships, where we bring to the table our years of extensive knowledge, skill and passion to get everything just right.

Tony started the business in July 1973 as a self employed “one man band”, recommending life insurance and superannuation products to what was then, a fairly simple financial market place. He took on his first employee in 1979, and as the business continued to grow, we bought our first small office in St Kilda Road, and had four employees at the time. Ten years later, we purchased our current office in Toorak Road, Camberwell, at which time we had nine employees, and currently there are 18 team members.

As a company, we have four highly qualified financial advisers, all specialists in SMSFs and superannuation generally, and one notable feature is that all advisers have been with our company for more than 10 years each. All of our staff were in attendance on the night (all the girls spent a small fortune on their outfits). Tony’s wife Jewel and their three children, Danielle, Carissa, Rohan and their partners were also there to celebrate this special occasion.

There were two main speeches on the night (all, naturally a surprise to Tony), including one from Mai Davies (our longest member of staff) and our very special guest, Trevor Matthews.

Mai actually started working at Gilham Financial Management in late 1984, and is very well known to all of our clients. She had six years off after the birth of her children, but then came back to work with us when the kids were in school, and to date has put in 23 years of service. She talked about her experiences working at GFM, and the way in which our company has evolved substantially since 1984.

And our special guest presenter on the night was Trevor Matthews, who did a great job in recounting some of Tony’s business history, basically having known Tony for the whole 40-year period. Trevor and Tony are both about the same age, and both joined Legal & General in 1971, Trevor as an actuarial cadet, and Tony in superannuation fund administration. Trevor went on to become the president of the Institute of Actuaries in Australia, the CEO of Legal & General in Australia and then ventured offshore, having stints with Manulife in Canada and then the CEO in Japan, the CEO of Standard Life in Edinburgh, Scotland, and finally the CEO of Friends Provident Life in London. He returned to Australia only several months ago with his family, settling back in Sydney, and has been a significant friend of our business over many years.

The last formality of the night for was Jenny Chin, our Financial Controller (and IT guru), who has been with the company for 21½ years to present Tony with a gift from the team. Again, Jenny had a little bit of time off after the birth of her three children, but effectively continued to work on a part time basis from home for a few months after each birth, and started coming back to the office two or three days a week, and just went on from there. With three children now between 10 and 18, she is back working full time, and is the second longest servicing employee, and like quite a few others in our company, started working for us straight after finishing university.

We all might be a little bit biased, but all of our staff were very proud of the way in which the night worked, and we received many nice compliments from our clients in attendance on the night. It’s doing things like this with our staff and our long standing clients that make us just a little bit “different” from the rest of the pack.

We are proud of the very significant skills, experience and qualifications held by our four advisers and senior technical staff. In the world of providing financial advice, knowledge, experience, qualifications and skill go a long way towards providing the best possible solutions, and that’s the reason why we are very proud that our four advisers and senior technical staff are so good at what they do.

Over many years, we have developed into a fairly large Specialist SMSF Practice, providing a completely end to end SMSF service, and doing everything in-house (other than the audit). Being privately and internally owned, we bear no allegiance to any outside party, and hence provide our financial planning skills and investment advice, free from any outside interference.

We are very proud of the business Tony commenced and built and the fact that we have a history of providing continuous advice to our clients, and we want to continue that for many decades to come.