Aged care roots run deep in the fabric of this advice career

Like many advisers we profile for The Inside Adviser, Claudia Rigoni-Brazzale did not set out to be a financial adviser. But careers can develop in unforeseen ways.

As a vivacious Melburnian teenager, fashion was Claudia Rigoni-Brazzale’s big interest; but it always went a bit deeper than merely an aesthetic appreciation. Her mother worked in a textile factory, and her initial fascination with the basic tool of the fashion trade came from the swatches of fabric samples she would bring home. After leaving school, Rigoni-Brazzale enrolled in a Bachelor of Applied Science at RMIT University, specialising in consumer sciences, with a major in textiles.

“My first job out of university was with an international company that was importing and exporting fabrics, in the manchester and furnishings area. It wasn’t fashion, but I just found it fascinating, and because we did study economics in the course, I loved the economics side as well as the textile side,” she says.

Rigoni-Brazzale was soon poached by a fashion wholesaler, and pitched headlong into the Melbourne fashion industry. “That was a great job; we were agents for companies in Europe, in Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, and I was taking our fabrics around all of the Melbourne names: Joseph Saba, Scanlan and Theodore, Alannah Hill, Adele Palmer, JAG, Sportsgirl, Witchery and everyone on Chapel Street.”

She worked there through ‘the recession we had to have’ (1990-1991), and saw the highs and the lows of the industry, over seven years. “By then, I was 27, and I wanted to start my own business. I just needed the confidence, and I spoke to a couple of my customers, and they knew wholesalers who needed an agent in Melbourne. A couple of them signed me as their agent, and then when I told my boss, he said, ‘Look, if you’re leaving, that’s fine; and can you actually take this other company you’ve been looking after, because we won’t be able to handle it without you.’ So, I started my business at 27 with three agencies.”

Over 13 years, Rigoni-Brazzale got to live the fashion life running her own company. “I was my own boss, selling these wonderful fabrics to all the designers. It was commission, the more I sold, the more money I made, and because I worked very hard, I did really well. I went to the big textile shows in Paris, Milan and Florence, but it was never about that. I think, coming from a migrant family, I didn’t live the high life, because I had been raised to work hard. And really, I was just finding, more and more, that I was fascinated by the business and investment side.”

Quite early, as a business owner, Rigoni-Brazzale was advised by her accountant to set up a self-managed super fund (SMSF). “I did a lot of my own book-keeping, and I was investing, too. I used to find it really fascinating going to the accountant at the end of the year, and talking about investing and tax planning and maximising my husband’s and my contributions to the super fund. I didn’t know it, but I was building-up to advice.”

As fate would have it, the government’s “Button plan” of 1986 for Australia’s textiles, clothing and footwear industry dictated her change of career. “The rise of Chinese imports was making it harder and harder, and there was a lot or rationalisation of the small and medium-sized businesses in the industry. I wanted out, so I handed over my company to someone else – and I knew where I wanted to go next.”

Rigoni-Brazzale went back to study, progressing through a diploma, graduate diploma and advanced diploma in financial planning, through Tribeca and Kaplan – and into a whole new career. “Having operated a successful small business within the often-volatile fashion industry for over a decade, I understand the importance of securing the financial future for my family. That background inspired me to help others do the same. I came to love developing financial strategies and helping others make smart financial choices.”

But there was yet another career change in store for her. About ten years ago, she attended a presentation at a professional development (PD) day by aged care adviser Rachel Lane. It was an epiphany.

“I thought, ‘wow, what an interesting niche.’ I realised that there was a massive need for this, but also, that aged care is not very sexy, and there wouldn’t be a lot of other advisers competing for that business. I started working with an amazing para-planner and another adviser, that I started Aged Care Specialists Victoria with, but who has since retired.”

Rigoni-Brazzale has since sold her advice firm, and has merged her aged care practice with Sphere Financial Services, handing over her advice clients. “I’m fully an aged care specialist, now. There’s just so much need for it – most people don’t have a plan, which means you’re dealing with a lot of people when it’s an emergency, the doctor has just told them that mum needs to go into care, and they’re frozen, they’re panicking, they’re thinking, ‘how do we fund that, because it has to start tomorrow.’ It’s complex advice at a time that’s often highly emotional, and people aren’t thinking straight.”

The big difference with aged care financial advice, she says, is that she “almost never” meets her clients. “My client is the person in aged care, and I pretty much always deal with the powers of attorney. The other difference is that aged care advice is more transactional, it’s not an ongoing advice situation, so you’ve always got to be marketing. But the need is growing all the time, and it’s very satisfying solving big problems for people.”

Eventually, Rigoni-Brazzale –a mother of two adult children – will retire, but “gradually,” she says. That will be the time for travelling with her husband more and fully enjoying the fruits of careful financial planning. An Italian to her fingertips, she frequently visits her father’s Alpine village in Northern Italy. “I just love the lifestyle there,” she says. “I love the regional cultural differences, the fashion sense, the family pride and the respect for older people. It’s a culture of hard work and self-respect; no matter what you do for a living, do it well, look good doing it, and be proud of doing it well. I really relate to that,” she says.