markets – Minchin Moore

Quarterly Market Wrap Q1 2025

The Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs on major trading partners and fears of their impact on growth and inflation unsettled markets in the March quarter. Geopolitical anxieties also mounted as the US attempted to cut a peace deal with Russia, over the heads of Ukraine and European allies. In Australia, the RBA belatedly joined other central banks in cutting official interest rates, while the federal government announced tax cuts ahead of an election in May.

Global Markets and the Global Economy take different Paths

Since I last wrote in this column on 31 March there has been tremendous change. The way we live, the way we work, the way we engage with each other and the way we think about the future. Some of the change has been good, much of it terrible, and there is plenty that we’re still not sure about.

Tech has Skewed the Numbers

To make sense of this seemingly impossible dichotomy of rising markets and deteriorating fundamentals, we need to look more deeply into the stock market’s composition.

Massive Government Stimulus has Reflated the Markets

Any rational assessment of current market prices needs to factor in the huge increase in the money supply that has been spawned by global governments’ ‘whatever-it-takes’ intervention to support markets, businesses, and workers.

Likelihood of a Vaccine

Whilst still far from a certainty, we sense the odds of a vaccine being developed appear to be shortening. Researchers around the World are racing to develop a vaccine with more than 140 candidate vaccines now being tracked by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Mark Minchin

Managing Partner

BCom, GDipFP, GDipApFin, CFP®

Mark has been ranked in Australia in the prestigious “Barron’s Australia Top Financial Advisers” survey each year since the survey began (from 2017 through 2023).

Mark has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning, and he is a Certified Financial Planner. Mark has specialist accreditations in the areas of self-managed super funds, derivatives, and margin lending. He has been involved in financial planning and wealth management since 1996.

Mark began his career in accounting with one of the big four before moving into financial services where he worked for some of Australia’s leading fund managers and investment banks prior to founding Minchin Private Wealth in 2010. Minchin Private Wealth became Minchin Moore in 2011 when the business merged with the longstanding financial advisory business of (now retired) Peter Williams.

With a deep understanding of the workings of capital markets, Mark’s skills encompass investment management, financial planning, trusts, estates, and philanthropy.

His strong industry background, thought leadership and commercial savvy, allows Mark to act as a valued sounding board for both clients and Team members.

Whilst Mark still works with a handful of clients and as Minchin Moore has grown, Mark’s role has necessarily shifted away from day-to-day client support responsibilities toward broader business stewardship responsibilities. Despite this, Mark’s love for helping clients sees him maintaining a connection with as many clients of the firm as he can.

Mark is the father of three and in addition to enjoying time with his young family is a keen sportsman who enjoys long distance ocean paddling events. Mark’s wife Chantal, also a paddler, is a two time Olympian and Beijing Bronze Medallist. With this key alignment of interests Mark was able to play a significant role in Chantal’s coaching in the lead up to the Beijing Games.

Jenny Wong

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) & Partner

BCom, DipFP, CFP®

Jenny has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting & Finance), is an accredited Derivatives and Self-Managed Super Fund adviser, and a Certified Financial Planner. She has over 24 years experience in wealth management and financial planning.

Having held a variety of senior technical roles in Australia’s major retail banks and Investment Banks, Jenny joined Minchin Moore in 2011.

Jenny and Mark Minchin are long-time professional colleagues and friends, with the pair having worked together since 2004.

Jenny has been the CFO since she joined Minchin Moore in 2011 and became a Partner of the business in 2013. Having played an integral part of the formation of Minchin Moore, Jenny remains heavily involved in recruitment, corporate strategy, team training and operational leadership.

In her role as CFO, she oversees the operations, finances, and compliance aspects of the business.

Jenny somehow juggles her demanding professional career with being the mother of twin boys. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and keeping fit.

Jamie Wickham

Head of Institutional and Family Office Services & Partner

BCom, CFA, GDipFP

Jamie received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Sydney and is a Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) charter holder. He has completed the Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning and is currently undertaking the Masters in Financial Planning.

Leveraging his background working with institutional clients, Jamie is focused on strengthening and building out client relationships in the institutional, not-for-profit category. In addition, Jamie is responsible for our solutions for family offices, including the provision of governance support, strategic advice, portfolio management solutions, research and due diligence.

Jamie has over 25 years’ experience in financial services, primarily with global investment research firm, Morningstar. Prior to joining Minchin Moore, Jamie was the Managing Director of Morningstar Australia and New Zealand. In this role, he was responsible for leading Morningstar in the region – formulating and executing Morningstar’s strategy, leading and developing the 200+ local team and driving the growth in the Australian and New Zealand business both organically and via acquisitions.

He did a stint in Morningstar’s London office from 2012 to 2015 where he led the company’s global research and data business. Jamie began his career as the founding employee of Aspect Financial in 1997 – a provider of equity research and data, which went on to become Aspect Huntley via a merger with Huntleys’ Investment Information in 2003. He held general management positions through to the acquisition of that business by Morningstar in July 2006.

Jamie is married with four children – three at university and one finishing up at school. He enjoys sports of all kinds including involvement in his boys’ school rowing program and attempting to improve his golf game. Otherwise, he enjoys travel and spending time on the family farm.

Kate Paul

Executive Assistant

Kate has over 10 years’ experience in executive administration and customer service in a variety of different fields but came to us from the Aged Care sector. She has a strong background in general IT, compliance, service provision and office management. The past ten years has seen Kate work alongside the owners of a local northern beaches family-owned aged care company. Building the business alongside the founders has given her a deep understanding of the importance of providing personalised, trusted, diligent and competent support to clients to help them achieve their goals.

Kate is often the first point of contact for clients, her job is to make sure we meet the needs of our clients in line with their expectations and always with a smile on her face.

When not working hard to deliver the highest possible internal and external customer service, you can find her on the netball court imagining she’s an Australian Diamond, walking her dog Kiki or spending time with her family and friends.

Tom Jeffries

Principal Adviser & Senior Partner

BCom, DipFP, GDip ApFin, CFP®

Tom has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, an Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning and is a Certified Financial Planner. Tom also has specialist accreditations in the areas of self-managed super funds, listed securities, margin lending and personal debt advice. Tom has been involved in the wealth management industry for over 18 years.

Tom began his career in portfolio management with a leading private client fund manager, where he gained a deep knowledge and appreciation for the workings of financial markets and the practical implications for real life portfolios. Tom then moved to one of Australia’s pre emanant fund managers where he worked with financial planning firms on portfolio construction and model enhancement. A former ‘Head of Investments’ at Minchin Moore, Tom continues to play a key role in our Investment Committee.

In Tom’s current day job, he specialises in providing holistic advice to HNW families and private clients. This includes advice across investment management, strategic financial planning, self-managed superannuation funds risk insurance and lending services. Tom enjoys seeing clients realise their financial and lifestyle goals.

Tom is the father of three, and in his spare time is a keen sportsman, participating in cycling, surfboat rowing and a range of outdoor activities.

Charlie Perkins

Principal Adviser & Senior Partner

BBus, GDipAppFin, DFS, F Fin, AFP

Charlie has a Bachelor of Business, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investment and a Diploma of Financial Services. He has over 22 years experience in professional investment management, is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and is an Associate Member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia.

Charlie established an independent advice practice ‘Perkins Portfolio Management’ (PPM) in Orange in 2009. After a long association, the practice ultimately merged with Minchin Moore in 2016.

Prior to founding PPM, Charlie spent 10 years in senior institutional trading and sales roles at Citigroup Global Markets [Sydney and London]. During this time, Charlie was responsible for trading with and marketing to key stakeholders across the global investment landscape, including government authorities, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, hedge funds and high net worth individuals. Charlie’s last position at Citigroup was Director – Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies, Citigroup Global Markets London.

Charlie’s international markets experience has allowed him to develop a deep knowledge of financial markets encompassing all asset classes – from equities, to bonds, commodities and currencies.

With this market knowledge coupled with a strong ability to think strategically, Charlie works closely with high net worth families and individuals to build comprehensive financial strategies and investment plans. He regularly appears on the “Finance Segment” on ABC Local Radio [Central West and Western Plains]

Charlie is married with four young children and lives in Orange. He has a keen interest in virtually all sports, but especially rugby, golf and cricket. When time permits he can be found either on the fairways of Duntryleague or the hill at Orange Emus.

Andrew Marchant

Chief Investment Officer (CIO) & Partner

BCom, GDipFP, GDipApFin

As Chief Investment Officer, Andrew is custodian for the Minchin Moore investment philosophy, responsible for development of investment strategy, and manages the portfolio management process for all client portfolios. Andrew is Chair of the Minchin Moore Investment Committee.

Andrew has a Bachelor of Commerce, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, and a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning. Andrew has more than 25 years of high net worth financial services experience developing expertise across investments, advice, and philanthropy.

Andrew’s previous experience includes Head of Advice and Head of Research, Managed Funds and Structured Products for one of Australia’s largest private banks. These roles included responsibility for the advice and investment process, and development of investment strategy and house views.

He also held the position of Senior Manager Investment Research with a leading private client advice firm. Andrew has significant investment governance experience through membership of highly influential Investment Committees.

Andrew is deeply engaged with philanthropy and the For Purpose sector as a non executive director with National Centre for Childhood Grief and Investment Committee member with Sydney Eisteddfod. He is loving raising three daughters with his wife Belinda, and relaxes through golf, outdoor exercise, reading, supercoach, and gardening.

Dr Steve Garth

Non-Executive, Independent Member of Investment Committee

PhD AppMath, MAppFin, BMathSc, BA, BBA

Dr Steve Garth brings together a rare combination of abilities that has taken him to the highest levels of academia, finance and business.

For nearly two decades, he played a key role in helping grow the Australian arm of one of the World’s largest asset managers. During his career he has managed Australian and global equity portfolios, managed the Asia Pacific trading team and oversaw the introduction of direct market access trading, and for the last 10 years he specialized in managing the firm’s fixed interest strategies.

Steve also had a key role in helping to communicate investment processes to institutional and advisor clients and prospects. He has the gift of synthesizing complex ideas, adding context and bringing them to life in new ways for multiple audiences.

Prior to his funds management career, in 2001, Steve was on the faculty of the University of New South Wales. His teaching and research interests were in optical fibre technology and quantitative finance.

Steve received his PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Australian National University. He also holds a BSc in Mathematics and Physics, a BA with majors in History and Politics, and holds a Masters of Applied Finance (MAppFin). As well, he has a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration.

Steve is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Doug Turek

Principal Adviser & Partner

BASc, PhD, AFP, DFP, TEP

Prior to merging his business with Minchin Moore in May 2022, Doug was the founder and Managing Director of the highly acclaimed financial planning firm Professional Wealth. Over 15 years Doug, his Team and Clients enjoyed considerable successes and in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 Doug was named as one of Australia’s Top Financial Advisers by leading US finance publication Barron’s (as published in The Australian) – alongside Minchin Moore principal Mark Minchin.

Prior to founding Professional Wealth, Doug worked for The Boston Consulting Group consulting to banks, insurers, and fund managers. Doug deeply understands how the industry and investing works and importantly how clients need to make it work for them. He was also part owner and founder of Melbourne specialist Estate Planning Law Firm Wills & Wealth.

Doug is a sought-after speaker on wealth topics. For over seven years he was a regular finance talk-back guest Saturday mornings on AM 774 Victoria-wide. For more than a decade he wrote on investment strategy and portfolio design for Alan Kohler’s Eureka Report. He currently writes for The Australian Wealth section and can be heard on their Money Cafe podcast. Doug is passionate about investor literacy and is a frequent presenter also at Australian Shareholder and Investor Association forums.

Doug holds a PhD in engineering and a Diploma in Financial Planning and is a keen golfer. He is Australian born and has lived and worked in Canada, the United States and throughout Asia. He is a member of the Financial Planning Association and the International Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Clients appreciate Doug’s passion for their wealth-being and deep knowledge in wealth management and investment.