What does it actually take to build a financial planning firm that wins Company of the Year?

Jeff Thurecht is the co-founder and CEO of Evalesco Financial Services, a Sydney-based firm he built alongside business partner Marshall Brentnall nearly two decades ago. The name says it all: Evalesco is Latin for "to grow strong, prevail and add value." In 2025, the industry agreed, awarding Evalesco both the Holistic Advice Firm of the Year and the overall Company of the Year at the IFA Excellence Awards.

In this conversation, Jeff opens up about the deliberate decisions behind that recognition. He shares how Evalesco built demographic-specific advice pods, from wealth accumulators and pre-retirees through to a genuine high net worth, multi-family office offering via the Principal Edge acquisition. He explains how a team of nine in the Philippines became one of the most valued parts of the business, not as outsourced support but as genuinely embedded team members.

Jeff is also candid about what it really meant to win a company award rather than an individual one, and why building a team without "rock stars" has always been the goal.

We also cover:

The acquisition of Principal Edge: what made it the right move, what made it hard, and what's still being worked through
The identity shift from adviser to CEO, and the surprisingly difficult task of measuring your own progress when client appointments no longer fill your diary
Evalesco's bold 3k 30 vision: 3,000 ideal clients by 2030, and exactly how they plan to get there
How technology is being used to free up adviser face time, including a new CRM build on Microsoft Dynamics and a purpose-built Technology and Advice Delivery Manager role

Jeff's answer to the final question, what single thing would move the needle most right now, is one of the clearest articulations of great advice leadership you'll hear.