Owners Advisory folds after founder death
Macquarie has announced it will be integrating the Owners Advisory automated advice offering into its wealth platform following the sudden death of its founder and chief investment officer, John O’Connell last week at age 53.
In an announcement, the Owners Advisory team said integrating the robo-advice service into the wealth platform would allow advisers to incorporate robo-advice into their value proposition for clients.
“Given Owners Advisory was powered by John’s personal investment philosophy and insights, unfortunately we will no longer be able to provide advice to direct investors through our website,” the statement said.
O’Connell started at Macquarie as a senior analyst in the 1990s, before becoming Macquarie’s global head of research, where be build a global research team.
“He was always at the cutting edge of new ideas, and nothing demonstrated this more than his decision to establish Owners Advisory to make professional grade, automated investment advice and services available online,” the statement said.
O’Connell launched Owners Advisory in February 2016 in a bid to target the 80 per cent of Australians who did not receive or seek financial advice, as well as to provide quality advice, market updates and insights available to do-it-yourself and self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) investors.
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