Media Interview: Jacqui Sherlock – Sherlock Wealth CEO

Jacqui Sherlock is the CEO of Sherlock Wealth, a second-generation, family-owned financial planning business. Celebrating its 52-year milestone this year, Sherlock Wealth was established in 1970. Jacqui and her husband Andrew took over the running of the business in 2017.

With a curious and entrepreneurial spirit, Jacqui draws upon her background in public relations, marketing and management, to bring a dynamic approach to her role as CEO. A busy wife and mother of three teenage daughters, Jacqui is proud to run a business that not only makes a difference to the lives of its clients but also provides exciting career opportunities for its team.

When she isn’t running the business or spending time with her family, Jacqui loves to play tennis, head to the beach, or get lost in a book. Jacqui is a keen supporter of important causes including the Australian Wildlife Conservatory (AWC) and Tour de Cure.

You joined Sherlock Wealth in 2014, how has the business grown and changed from your original roles as General Manager in the business? 

The business has evolved a lot since I first joined the firm as General Manager. When my husband, Andrew and I took over the business in 2017, it felt that we were now in the driver’s seat, fully responsible for our own lives and livelihoods. For me, stepping into the role of CEO was a way of really embracing that.

Over the last few years, we have focused on refining our client base to align with our firm’s strengths, working with those whose lives we are able to make the biggest difference to.

Interestingly, we have a much smaller client base today than we did in 2014, but we work much more deeply with these clients and have developed very strong relationships with them.

One of the other big changes has been the development of our team. Today, we have an amazing team and a strong and nurturing corporate culture.

How have the learnings from the pandemic changed how the Sherlock Wealth team engage with your clients in a positive way? 

The pandemic has made a real difference to the way we work and engage with our clients. With everyone working from home, the biggest adjustment we had was not being able to see our clients and our team in person.

However, technology played a crucial role in transitioning us into communicating via the digital world. In many cases, our clients have benefitted from this, especially in terms of saving time.  It’s certainly been rewarding to see the positive impact we’ve been able to make on the lives of our clients and their families during a time of such uncertainty.

Tell us something about Sherlock Wealth our clients might not know about the company? 

You may not know that we have our own Sherlock Wealth management portal – which is available for free through your local App Store.  Our portal helps our clients to take control of their personal finances by tracking budget and cash flow, housing documents in one place, linking your accounts and communicating with us.  It can also give you a real-time snapshot of your net wealth at any time which I love.

To learn more about our portal for your financial planning, you can download it from Sherlock Wealth’s website: www.sherlock.wprunner.net

Tell us about how by working with Sherlock Wealth, you take your clients on a journey to understand their financial affairs to help them to create a positive financial future. 

The clients we work with are typically successful families and individuals running busy lives with complicated affairs, who are time-poor. For example, they may own more than one property, more than one car and have kids in childcare, private schools or colleges.  They like going on holidays and spending time with family and friends. They often hold multiple assets and entities, such as an SMSF and a family trust. They are usually generous and like to support charitable causes as well as to help their children and grandchildren.

The first thing we do with our clients is to help them to articulate their Why? We work out what success means to them and what it is they are wanting to achieve with their wealth. From there, we go on a journey together to fully understand their financial affairs and to map out their lifestyle goals. We then create and implement a path for achieving those goals through smart financial planning and management.

Many of our clients are looking to build their wealth as well as to create a legacy for the next generation and beyond.

What surprises most of our clients is that most of the time their financial goals are actually very achievable, it just requires some forward planning and organisation.

I find one of the most rewarding parts of my job is being able to see our client’s goals and aspirations come to life and to see them leading the life they have always dreamed of.

Tell us about the pride that Sherlock Wealth takes when it comes to providing a safe environment for your clients to trust you.

Trust is the true foundation of our business. To be able to provide the very best advice and service to our clients, they need to be able to feel truly comfortable to share their lives with us. Often one of the key reasons they chose us is knowing we are there to support them and their families when the need arises. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

We take great pride in creating a safe space for our clients. Financial advice is a two-way relationship that lasts a lifetime and often spans multiple generations. Open and honest communication is crucial to that.

We have been very fortunate to work with you and the Sherlock Wealth team over the last 3 years as a Business Concierge member. What have been the key benefits of working with Essential Solutions to support yourself and the broader Sherlock Wealth team? 

We have enjoyed working with Essential Solutions for the last few years and have found the service to be a lifesaver!  Xanthe has helped us out with everything from coordinating client events and entertainment, organising rewards for our team, travel management, as well as ad hoc personal tasks for our executives as they arise. Being a small business, it has been so helpful having an extra set of hands to take care of the finer details. Through a high-quality network, we can trust that Xanthe and her team will always provide us with the best service available.

We work with high performing people and organisations to help make their best lives and businesses happen every day.

Visit our Business Concierge membership plans to view our membership plans for our team to give you back valuable time in your day.  Contact click here to email our team to arrange a time to talk about your business.