By Jean Strock, AFA – 19 January 2021
It was with relief that in late December we finally got to acknowledge Alistair Pirie’s contribution to the Saturn business. As a longstanding adviser and shareholder of Saturn, Alistair retired on 31 March in the midst of the first Covid lock down.
The planned introduction of his clients to their new adviser was disrupted to say the least.
We rescheduled Alistair’s retirement function for September only to have Auckland return to Level 3 lockdown and cancel us again.
After a long career with ANZ bank including seven years as a branch manager, Alistair set up Broadview Financial Management Limited in 1988 with Barrie Williams, Stu Wilson and Deane Cope. The company initially specialised in debt restructuring, investment and business insurance.
In terms of providing private clients access to international shares and funds, Broadview was ahead of its time. International investments were usually bundled up with insurance products which carried a huge upfront cost for clients. The agent’s commission took a significant amount of the initial investment often in the form of ‘foundation units’.
Broadview used the AXYS administration platform allowing clients to invest in their own name and drip feed funds into global investments. This was quite a radical change at the time. The only exception was UK listed trusts which were held by a nominee but under the client’s portfolio number.
Alistair chose the new ‘Saturn Portfolio’ name in 2006 as it represents the ‘universe’ of possible investments. After 32 years with Saturn, it was time for Alistair to put his feet up and we wish he and Liz all the very best in retirement.
The Broadview team in 1988: Left to right: Dean Cope (investment), the late Barrie Williams (key man and business continuity insurance), Alistair Pirie (debt restructuring and commercial loans), Stu Wilson (marketing and sales).