Richard van der Merwe

Richard is a senior partner at Fordham Business Advisors, a Chartered Accounting firm that specialises in advising private and family-owned businesses and their owners and is fully integrated with Perpetual Wealth Management to provide services throughout the client life cycle from family business to family office. He has been with the firm for over four of the six decades of Fordham’s existence, is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. As a Family Business Accredited Advisor, Richard has a deep understanding of family and business dynamics, succession planning and inter-generational wealth planning. Richard brings a unique perspective to family shareholder issues, succession planning, family office and governance. This includes valuations and transactions involving extraction of wealth from complex structures whether it is through succession, management buy-in, trade sale or corporate listing. He has been advising some client family groups for three and four generations. Richard sits on the Finance Council of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, it’s Investment Sub Committee and the Priests Retirement Foundation of the Archdiocese. He is Chair of his family’s Private Ancillary Fund, has previously sat on the Clark Rubber Franchising Advisory board and been Deputy Chair of a public offer superannuation fund.