JBWere

JBWere

JBWere was founded in 1840 in Melbourne as a stockbroking partnership, making it one of the oldest continuously operating financial institutions in Australia. The firm spent most of its history as an independent partnership before National Australia Bank acquired it in 2000, later restructuring it into a distinct private wealth brand within NAB's broader organization. CEO Michael Saadie, who assumed the role in 2019, runs a business that sits alongside NAB Private Bank in the bank's corporate and institutional division. The firm's investment strategy centers on open-architecture portfolio construction for clients with typically more than AUD 2 million in investable assets. JBWere does not manufacture its own investment products. Instead, its research team screens external managers across Australian equities, global equities, fixed income, property, infrastructure, private equity, and hedge funds, assembling bespoke portfolios for each client. The firm also provides direct Australian equity advice, reflecting its stockbroking lineage. Its client base includes families, executives, and the not-for-profit sector, where it has carved a meaningful niche — it is recognized as one of Australia's largest investment advisors to charitable endowments and foundations. The firm operates from offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Canberra. In 2016, JBWere formalized a collaboration with NAB Private, integrating private banking and wealth advice under a single client relationship model. The team is structured around relationship directors and investment strategists, with the National Australia Bank balance sheet providing custody, lending, and transactional infrastructure. CEO Michael Saadie has publicly emphasized the firm's intent to grow via strategic hires of senior private wealth advisors, rather than through mass-market expansion. Structurally, JBWere differs from pure independent family offices by operating inside a large bank, yet it differs from typical bank wealth arms by maintaining a genuinely open investment architecture with no proprietary product push. This hybrid model gives clients access to institutional-grade custody and lending through NAB while preserving an advisory relationship detached from any manufacturing conflict. The succession of the brand from its 1840 partnership roots through bank ownership represents one of Australia's longest continuous private wealth franchises.