After three decades in advice and a 2025 management buyout, Jeremy Squier says independence, teamwork and evidence-based planning are the pillars of a modern practice.
Certified financial planner Jeremy Squier (pictured above) has lived the evolution of South African advice from the product-first era to today’s planning-led profession.
He started his career in asset-based finance and later moved to Liberty Life and then the Sage Group, where he entered the world of financial planning in 1989.
‘In those days it was much more of a sales-based, product-first approach,’ he told Citywire South Africa.
‘Liberty had excellent training on needs analysis and soft skills, and they placed strong emphasis on client engagement and empathy, which were ahead of their time. Across the broader industry, however, the people’s side has been put on the back burner since the introduction of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (Fais) Act,’ he added.
‘Regulation brought more technical rigour and process, which was needed, but it also tilted the balance away from relationship skills. This is, at its heart, a people business, and advisers need to understand that the numbers only work when you understand the person behind them.’
After gaining his independence, Squier helped build one of Wealth Associates’ largest advisory businesses alongside his wife, Sabra, before executing a management buyout in June 2025 to form Wealth and Asset Advisors.
He was a director of Wealth Associates, a founding member of the group’s investment committee and the largest shareholder in that group before Wealth Associates was sold to Carmel Wealth.
Squier said that the buyout followed the sale, a shift he said did not fit his team’s ethos.
‘I am not a corporate animal. They flipped the model to a top-down structure. Culturally, it did not suit me or the key members of my team, so we negotiated a management buyout and carried on doing what had worked for our clients.’
His newly formed firm has four-and-a-half advisers, including a para-planner stepping into advice, a medical scheme specialist, and a short-term insurance team, supported by a total staff of 12.
The practice serves slightly over 2,000 clients across all these areas. Squier personally manages about 250 active clients while running the business. Assets under advice are around R1.5bn, depending on markets.
True independence is not just ownership, he said. It is structured. Squier shifted advisers onto salaries years ago to remove product-pushing incentives, and he builds teams from the bottom up.
‘We use the audit and legal professions as a model. Bring people in, intern them, grow them, and increase responsibility as they gain experience.’
He is now formalising staff share allocations for long-standing colleagues.
‘My success is as much because of them as mine.’
Evidence-based advice
Evidence-based, independent financial advice backed by strong relationships with clients, staff and key providers has always been his emphasis.
But ‘evidence-based’ does not mean clever fund bets. The philosophy is directly linked to his belief that true independence lies in structure and relationships, rather than in products.
‘I am not a fund manager,’ he explained. ‘The investment solutions are already in place and well designed. What really matters is applying those tools intelligently for each person.’
The business primarily uses Glacier and Momentum Wealth, with Ninety One and Allan Gray also on the list. ‘It is a function of them being part of our team,’ Squier said.
On portfolio construction, the practice has worked closely with PortfolioMetrix and Morningstar as discretionary fund managers (DFMs), and he expects to use a combination going forward. DFMs differ meaningfully in approach. There is optimisation in those differences.
The tough part of the job, he said, is understanding what makes people tick and earning trust so that plans have enough flexibility for life’s jagged path. That means combining numbers with behaviour.
‘Financial planning is less about money than people think. It is about what money enables. The models are available to all of us. The real work is helping clients recognise fears and avoid rash decisions, especially when times are tough.’
The firm runs a composite model with specialists in each line, allowing clients to experience the practice as a co-ordinated team.
‘If I am the primary adviser, the medical, risk or short-term specialists are introduced as secondary advisers. We all communicate, so everyone knows what is going on for that client.’
Generational preferences are embraced rather than resisted.
‘Younger clients are happy to engage online. Retirees prefer the phone or in-person. Principles stay the same. Spend less than you earn, start early and be consistent. On newer themes, like crypto or tokenisation, we will have the conversation. Some clients will do a small allocation via a platform like Luno, but they must understand the risks.’
On technology, he views AI as an efficiency tool rather than a substitute for client conversations.
‘Business is like rugby. I am the fly-half. I can hit a ruck if needed, but I need the right props and wings. Surround yourself with specialists and treat product providers, auditors and compliance as part of your team. The better we work with them, the better the outcome for clients.’
Regulation and staying relevant
Squier is pragmatic about regulation.
‘Integrity is critical. Good advisers find the client-facing compliance easy because it evolves naturally with the process. The bigger challenge is the legal and licensing layer, which is why strong external compliance partners are vital.’
He believes that parts of the industry are overreacting to the forthcoming Conduct of Financial Institutions (Cofi) bill.
‘A lot of corporates are buying distribution by engaging in fearmongering among independents. In reality, 85% is the same and 15% is different. If you are behind on compliance now, you will struggle. If you are on point, there is less to fear.’
His concern is capacity and proportionality.
‘If Cofi leads to re-licensing every financial service provider, it will take years, just like Fais. Focus should be on the left-hand tail of the curve where bad actors sit, not creating bureaucracy for the 80% doing good work.’
Wealth and Asset Advisors is, by and large, a family business, but Squier is alert to the risks of nepotism. His wife, Sabra, runs the medical and risk lines; his daughter, Michelle, leads the short-term team; his son, Mark, advises on wealth; and his son-in-law serves as operations director.
‘You must be careful of nepotism. It is unfair to everyone else. That is why we are allocating shares to long-standing staff and building a genuine succession,’ he said.
Away from work, he hikes daily with his dogs in the Overberg near Kleinmond, mountain bikes on local trails, and plays golf. For reading, he saves the technical for work and relaxes with historical fiction and old-school classics.
‘Dale Carnegie is a cliché for a reason, and Dan Sullivan’s ideas on focus time and buffer time are very practical for owner-managers,’ he said.
If there is a single through-line across four decades, it is that advice is human.
‘You can do whatever you want with AI. If you do not understand people, you will fail. The genius in planning is not the spreadsheet. It is trust, judgement and teamwork.’
