Merchant director’s 35-year history in Australian advice
With a joint venture announced between WT Financial and Merchant Wealth Partners, the firm’s partner David Haintz has a long history with Australian financial advice.
Yesterday, it was announced that advice licensee WT Financial had entered a 50/50 joint venture with the Australian subsidiary of US financial advice investor Merchant Wealth Partners.
Merchant Wealth Partners is a New York-based capital partner that provides growth capital, management resources, strategic advice, and opportunities to advice and wealth management firms globally. The firm has partnered with 101 companies in six countries and collectively manages over $290 billion in assets.
The joint entity with WT Financial, according to an ASX statement, is currently called WTL & MWP Investco Pty Ltd and will look to provide strategic growth capital to “high-potential financial advice practices across Australia”.
Partner Haintz will take up a position as executive director at the new entity, having already had a tenured history in the financial advice space.
Having run his own financial planning business Haintz Financial Services for 18 years, this then merged to create Shadforth Financial Group in 2008. Haintz was a founding director of Shadforth and later became principal and head of advice until 2015 when it completed the acquisition by IOOF Group. He then established advice consultancy Global Adviser Alpha.
As well as his practical work, he spent 10 years on committees at the Financial Planning Association Australia (FPA), including three years as a director. He was also a founding trustee of the Future2 Foundation, was chair of the advisory board of fintech Practifi, and spent three years in a working group on the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB).
He joined Merchant in July 2022 as a partner with the goal of partnering with wealth managers to drive growth and operational scale. US firm Merchant Investment Management was founded in 2017 and set up its Australian subsidiary in 2022, with Haintz and Santiago Burridge, former co-founder of Implemented Portfolios, as founding partners.
At the time of the launch, the pair said they were bullish on the opportunities presented by the Australian financial advice network as banks exited the industry.
This is the fourth move that Merchant Wealth has made into the Australian advice market as, in January, it entered a strategic partnership with Coastal Advice Group that has offices in Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth. This allows Coastal to unlock growth and innovation opportunities, strengthen its ability to attract and retain talent, invest in new technologies, and foster a supportive workplace culture.
Merchant also took a minority, non-controlling position in Coastal Advice as part of the partnership, providing capital to drive the advice firm’s expansion.
It also took a position at MBS Insurance in September 2023, a national risk advisory firm, and a partnership with Akambo Financial Group and First Financial Planning in November 2023.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
Recommended for you
With an advice M&A deal taking around six months to enact, two experts have shared their tips on how buyers and sellers can avoid “deal fatigue” and prevent potential deals from collapsing.
Several financial advisers have been shortlisted in the ninth annual Women in Finance Awards 2025, to be held on 14 November.
Digital advice tools are on the rise, but licensees will need to ensure they still meet adviser obligations or potentially risk a class action if clients lose money from a rogue algorithm.
Shaw and Partners has merged with Sydney wealth manager Kennedy Partners Wealth, while Ord Minnett has hired a private wealth adviser from Morgan Stanley.
