August 10, 2026

Anthony Kapetanovic’s career spanned Commonwealth Bank,Westpac and IPAC before a stint at Solomon Smith Barney (now Morgan Stanley)convinced him there was a better way to do it.

In March 2007, he and two partners walked away from MorganStanley with about 60 loyal clients, signed a five-year lease backed bypersonal guarantees, and founded Akambo. With the GFC just around the corner, thetiming could hardly have been worse. What got them through was referrals:clients backing them through the hard years, and a chance conversation with aneighbour that turned into a joint-venture model with accounting firms,eventually growing to 25 partnerships.

Today Akambo manages around $6 billion in assets through anetwork of 100 advisers, employs close to 200 staff across the east coast,Perth and Adelaide, and serves roughly 7,000 clients.

In this episode, Anthony joins Steve Robertson to talk aboutbuilding a business through a crisis, cracking the accounting-referral modelmost advisers never quite work out, and why trust, both inside the business andout, is what's held Akambo together for nearly two decades.

‍

‍

‍