Last year Capital Partners WA won the FAAA Professional Practice of the Year Award for the third time.
“This recognition is significant. It reflects the incredible dedication of our team and, just as importantly, the trust and confidence of our clients,” said Capital Partners managing director Charmaine Lamprecht.
“Awards like this are not achieved in isolation – they’re the result of a shared commitment to excellence and a belief in the value of meaningful financial advice.”
Capital Partners joined the then-FPA Professional Practice Program in 2012. The Professional Practice Program started in 2011 and is a badge of recognition for elite financial planning practices within the FAAA membership. To join the program, practices need to apply and undergo a health diagnostic, external audit and ensure that the business is operating at the highest standards. Professional Practices are then able to enter the Practice of the Year award, receive special discounts to FAAA member benefits, attend special networking events with other practices including peer group sessions and study tours.
The FAAA’s rigorous application and interview process ensure this award considers the holistic contribution of the finalists to the profession – including what they do in the areas of community contribution, mentoring, education and promoting the profession to the public, as well as success within the practice itself.
“It’s very exciting to win again, and it’s real recognition of the work we do for clients and how much we learn and how much they teach us.
It’s an accolade to share with both our clients and team, Charmaine said.
“While we are honoured by this recognition, the real privilege is the work itself – helping people make better decisions, feel secure about the future, and create a life of purpose and possibility.”
Charmaine said the awards process was a fantastic experience. “The process they took you through really makes you reflect on your firm and the why behind it, and then why you’ve made all the decisions you’ve made to invest in the PY or invest in the technology.
“There was just that beautiful opportunity to look back, which we don’t do often.”
Focusing on long term success
Charmaine said she believes Capital Partners won the award because of the commitment the business has made in developing its people and Capital Partner’s focus on happy, healthy clients requiring a very happy, healthy team with people growing in their careers.
They’re doing work that’s purposeful. They’re doing work that they love and we focus on making it really structured to develop them as advisers, she said.
“It’s not only the professional year; the PY is where people are entering, and it’s quite a big focus but it’s also as they progress all the way to adviser, and then as they expand their skills as an adviser. It’s that commitment to ongoing development and growth and having it done in a very structured, systematic way that’s really interesting,” Charmaine said.
“We obviously have a heavy focus on technical development, but there’s also development around our mindset and how we show up, how we behave, how we interact with each other, which flows through to our clients.”
Charmaine joined Capital Partners 13 years ago when there were only 10 people in the business. Around 2012, founder David Andrew and the board decided that they wanted to build a business that would be around for a long time for the benefit of their clients, their clients’ children and the following generations. Capital Partners now has 55 employees, including 15 advisers.
“Rather than thinking a bit more short-term about when will we retire, [David and the board] were thinking, how can we make sure that our clients will be really looked after in the future,” Charmaine said.
This led to a business which had appropriate operations support, and training all staff to be leaders regardless of the roles they had.
“We just started the journey and as it’s unfolded, we’ve been able to form an incredible group of people that want to see what’s possible for the business. With that thinking we keep innovating and changing things, developing them and then tweaking,” she said.
It’s also meant that staff turnover has been low – just 3 per cent in 7.5 years.
Developing new talent
In the last year Capital Partners hired 10 new team members as part of its graduate program. They start as associates in the project team – getting involved in a bit of everything as an opportunity to see what they might really like doing. It might be client services, or operations.
To ensure there were graduates available when the growing business wanted them, Capital Partners runs a scholarship with Curtin University and partners with the university to lead lectures and build engagement and interest in the profession. “This has led to being more able to attract people and building a bit more structure around the professional year,” Charmaine said.
The Capital Partners clientele tend to be people with complexity – either time complexity (busy business owners or c-suite executives), emotional complexity (going through divorce or bereavement) or technical complexity (trusts and other investments).
One team, one dream
Charmaine was operations manager prior to the managing director role, and performed all functions – talent, recruitment, finance, marketing. As the company grew, a new structure was put in place.
She became managing director, with other people responsible for each of her previous functions in their own right.
That’s been evolving as the company has grown and the business has become more complex.
Helping other businesses
Perth is quite small as well in terms of financial advice, so Charmaine said they tend to know a lot of the other firms.
“We see them at conferences, so we’re always picking each other’s brains on what each other’s doing. How can we help? she said.
“We catch up at FAAA events and we’re also members of the Global Association of Independent Advisors. We do study tours and other firms will come into our office. We’ll take them through everything we do and how we do it.
“We’re really open to that kind of sharing. So many different people and so many other firms have helped us grow the business that we have today. We want to be able to pay that back in whatever way we can.
Practices currently in the FAAA Professional Practice Program can Click here for more information on entering the FAAA Professional Practice of the Year awards in 2025.
