Private Wealth · Advice for wholesale investors

For wealth that has outgrown the standard playbook.

Wealth Designers Advisory advises successful families, business owners and founders, and senior professionals whose capital sits substantially outside superannuation. Self-licensed and principal-led: the adviser across the table holds the licence, and the only agenda at that table is yours.

Request a private conversation → What wholesale status means

Eligibility criteria apply. Wholesale services are available only to wholesale clients within the meaning of ss 761G and 761GA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Until classification is assessed and documented, we treat every enquirer as a retail client.

Who this is for
  • Substantial investable capital held outside superannuation
  • Business owners, founders and families after a liquidity event
  • Investors who want to understand a decision, not delegate it
  • Families planning a transfer of wealth to the next generation
Wholesale client status is a legal classification under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), not a service tier we award. We assess it, evidence it, and revisit it — and we explain what it removes before anything is recommended.
The Shift

More Australians of substantial means are moving beyond the retail channel.

The money has outgrown the format

Multiple entities, a business, property, private holdings and a family balance sheet that no longer fits a single risk-profile questionnaire. The complexity is structural, and it needs to be advised structurally.

Access is not the hard part

Wholesale classification opens doors — wholesale funds, private markets, unlisted opportunities, placements. What it does not supply is the judgement to walk past most of them. That is the part worth paying for.

Classification is a decision, not an upgrade

Being treated as a wholesale client removes protections that were built for a reason. It is a decision to make deliberately, with the trade-off in front of you — and it can be revisited at any time.

The Engagement

One adviser across the whole balance sheet.

A private client engagement is built around the structure you actually have — entities, superannuation, business and personal capital considered as one picture rather than a series of unconnected products.

Portfolio mandates built to your brief

An investment approach designed around your objectives, liquidity needs, tax position and tolerance for illiquidity — not fitted to a model chosen for someone else.

Curated wholesale opportunities

Where you qualify, access to opportunities available only to wholesale clients — assessed by us first, explained plainly, and declined openly when they do not stand up.

Intergenerational transfer and estate architecture

How wealth moves to the next generation, in what structure, with what control and what tax consequence — planned while the decisions are still yours to make.

Tax-aware structuring across entities

Personal names, companies, trusts and superannuation each behave differently. We work with your accountant so the structure and the strategy agree with each other.

Consolidated reporting

One view across the whole balance sheet, so a decision in one place can be made with full sight of everything else.

Direct access to the principal

No relationship team, no escalation path. You deal with Troy Gudgeon, who holds the licence and is accountable for the advice.

Access With Judgement

The doors are the easy part. The judgement at the door is the work.

Wholesale classification widens the universe of what can be considered — private credit, private equity, unlisted assets, placements and wholesale funds that are not available to retail investors. A wider universe is not automatically a better one. Much of what arrives in it is priced for the person selling it.

We decline more wholesale opportunities than we recommend — and we will tell you what we declined, and why.

What we assess

Structure, manager, fees at every layer, liquidity and lock-up terms, valuation practice, the incentives of everyone in the chain, and what has to be true for the thesis to work.

How it fits

An opportunity is only interesting in the context of the rest of your balance sheet — your liquidity, your existing concentrations, your tax position and your timeframe.

What we will not do

Recommend anything we do not understand, present illiquidity as though it were safety, or describe an investment in language that implies a certainty no investment has.

Both Sides Of The Ledger

What wholesale status opens — and what it sets aside.

Most firms describe wholesale classification as an unlock. It is also a subtraction, and the subtraction is real. Here is the whole ledger, before you decide anything.

What it opens

  • Investments legally available only to wholesale clients, including wholesale funds and private markets
  • Advice that can move at the speed of the opportunity, without a retail advice production cycle
  • Engagement terms negotiated to the work rather than templated to a regime
  • Direct, technical conversations that assume you can read a term sheet

What it sets aside

  • The Statement of Advice, the Financial Services Guide and the Product Disclosure Statement
  • The statutory best interests duty (s 961B) and the related appropriate-advice and warning obligations
  • Target market determination protection — no regulated check that a product was designed for someone like you
  • The ongoing fee consent regime and the statutory compensation arrangement requirement
  • Full access to AFCA — the door is narrower, and we cannot promise a complaint would be heard

What does not change: our licence obligation to act efficiently, honestly and fairly (s 912A(1)(a)); the prohibitions on misleading and unconscionable conduct; our general law duties of care; and every promise in our written engagement. As a matter of house policy we also give wholesale clients a written advice document, apply the Code of Ethics, and put the protections you are forgoing in front of you in writing before anything is recommended. Read the full explainer →

How It Works

Classification first. Advice second.

01

A private conversation

An unhurried discussion of your situation, your structure and what you are trying to achieve. No products are discussed and nothing is recommended.

No obligation · Confidential · Sydney, Brisbane or video
02

Classification, evidenced

If wholesale advice suits, we assess your classification against the statutory tests, obtain and verify the evidence, and give you the written schedule of what the classification sets aside.

Documented before any wholesale advice is given
03

Written engagement, then advice

Scope, duties, standards and fees set out in writing and agreed before work begins. Your classification is then revisited annually and whenever your circumstances materially change.

Fee for service · Reviewed at least annually
The Principal

The adviser you meet holds the licence.

Troy Gudgeon established Wealth Designers Advisory under its own Australian Financial Services Licence to remove the conflicts that come with dealer groups and institutional ownership. There is no committee to defer to and no product list to satisfy — which also means there is nowhere for accountability to go but here.

  • 20+ years of financial planning experience across every market cycle
  • Master of Financial Planning — Kaplan Professional
  • SMSF Specialist Advisor™ (SSA™) designated
  • Finalist, Adviser of the Year – Personal Advice, Australian Wealth Management Awards 2026
  • Self-licensed AFSL 562647 — no bank ownership, no third-party ties, no product quotas
  • Wholesale classifications documented to Corporations Act standards; the Code of Ethics applied as house policy
Request a private conversation →
Troy Gudgeon, Founding Director and Principal Adviser
Troy Gudgeon
Founding Director & Principal Adviser
MFinPlan · SSA™ · FAAA Member
Wealth Designers Advisory Pty Ltd
ABN 26 650 483 300 · AFSL 562647
Accredited SMSF Association Specialist
Our Thinking

Read how we think before you call.

Common Questions

Questions sophisticated investors actually ask.

A private conversation is the right place to ask anything else. It carries no obligation, and no product is discussed until your classification has been assessed and documented.

Request a private conversation →
  • Who is this section of the site for?
    People whose wealth sits substantially outside superannuation and who may meet one of the legal tests to be classified as a wholesale client — typically business owners and founders, families following a liquidity event, and senior professionals with significant non-super capital. Eligibility is a legal classification, not a description of a lifestyle, and we assess and document it before any wholesale advice is given.
  • What is a wholesale client?
    Under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), every client is a retail client unless a specific provision says otherwise. Outside superannuation the main gateways are a product value or price of at least $500,000 for the product concerned; a certificate from a qualified accountant confirming net assets of at least $2.5 million or gross income of at least $250,000 in each of the last two financial years; being a professional investor; a service provided for use in connection with a business that is not a small business; and an assessment by the licensee under section 761GA. Our eligibility page sets out each of these in plain English.
  • What about my superannuation?
    For advice relating to a superannuation product — including your SMSF — the individual wealth tests do not apply. Superannuation is provided to a person as a retail client under s 761G(6)(a), and the only relevant gateway is a fund with net assets of at least $10 million. A $2.5 million accountant’s certificate does not make your super advice wholesale, and anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong. In practice most clients here are retail for their super advice and may be wholesale for their non-super wealth. We run both lanes properly and document which is which.
  • What do I give up as a wholesale client?
    A meaningful set of statutory protections: the Statement of Advice, the Financial Services Guide, the Product Disclosure Statement, the statutory best interests duty in s 961B and its related obligations, target market determination protection, the ongoing fee consent regime, and the statutory compensation arrangement requirement. Access to AFCA is also narrower. We set all of this out in a written schedule of protections forgone, and ask you to sign it, before any wholesale advice is provided.
  • How are you paid?
    Fee for service, agreed in writing before any work starts, and quoted individually because the work varies with the complexity of the engagement. We are self-licensed and take no commissions on investment products. Every fee and any benefit we receive is disclosed to you in writing.
  • How does an engagement start?
    With a conversation — no products, no recommendations, no obligation. If wholesale advice looks like the right fit, the next step is formal classification, evidenced and documented to the standard the Corporations Act requires. Only then do we set out scope, duties and fees in a written engagement, and only after that is signed do we advise.
Next Step

A conversation, before anything is decided.

If your circumstances suit a private client engagement, the first step is a conversation — no products, no recommendations, and no obligation. If they do not, we will say so.

Request a private conversation → Call +61 2 8526 5889

Eligibility criteria apply. Wholesale services are available only to wholesale clients within the meaning of ss 761G and 761GA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Wealth Designers Advisory Pty Ltd · AFSL 562647.

Important information

This page contains general information only. It does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs, and it is not personal advice. Nothing on this page is an offer, invitation, solicitation or recommendation to acquire any financial product, and no financial product is offered or promoted here.

Wholesale services are available only to persons who are wholesale clients within the meaning of sections 761G and 761GA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Whether a person is a wholesale client is a legal classification that we assess and document before any wholesale advice is provided. Until that assessment is completed, we treat every enquirer as a retail client.

Wealth Designers Advisory Pty Ltd · ABN 26 650 483 300 · AFSL 562647 · AFCA member 110860. Statutory references current as at 29 July 2026.