Sunday 18th January 2026
New adviser-led firm Granite Bay targets modern, transparent wealth management
Backed by senior industry talent and a BlackRock OCIO partnership, Granite Bay is betting that the next phase of private wealth will be built by independent firms designed for today’s high-net-worth clients.
Granite Bay Private Wealth has officially opened its doors, and its arrival says something important about where Australian wealth management is headed, away from inherited complexity and toward adviser-led firms built from the ground up for today’s high-net-worth clients.
Launched on January 14, 2026, Granite Bay positions itself as a contemporary alternative to the traditional “big institution” model, one that aims to combine institutional-grade investment capability with the attentiveness, alignment and transparency of a privately owned business.
A new adviser-led model, with growth ambitions
The firm has been established by a partnership of senior investment advisers and seasoned industry executives, focused on serving high-net-worth individuals, multi-generational families and sophisticated private capital. It will operate from Sydney and Brisbane, with plans to expand into Melbourne, and is pursuing an ambitious growth strategy backed by a syndicate of prominent investors.
That mix – adviser ownership, experienced institutional leadership and expansion capital – is increasingly becoming the blueprint for new-era, high-quality independent advice businesses scaling-up without losing what makes them trusted in the first place.
Leadership with deep institutional DNA
Granite Bay’s founding managing partner Steve Moon brings more than two decades in private wealth across global institutions including Morgan Stanley, UBS and Macquarie, experience that’s clearly shaped the firm’s pitch of global capability, delivered in a more focused, client-first structure.
Joining as CEO is David Asplin, with more than 30 years’ experience in funds management and operational leadership across QIC, Challenger and Colonial First State. Asplin’s message is blunt and modern: no legacy baggage, no old tech, no inherited compromises.
The broader executive team includes chief operating officer Matt Nicholls, who has more than 30 years’ experience across global markets including senior leadership roles at Morgan Stanley and Macquarie; and Jessica Brady, general manager, who banks 20 years across advice and platforms, including roles at Macquarie, BT Financial Group and Colonial First State.
Governance front and centre
If the last decade in financial services has taught clients anything, it’s that “trust us” is not a strategy. Granite Bay is leaning hard into governance as a differentiator, appointing as founding Chair Damien Frawley, former CEO of QIC and former country head of BlackRock Australia, and current chair of Hostplus Superannuation and QTC Capital Markets, with board roles including Mirvac and Elders.
Frawley’s rationale for joining is telling: disciplined decision-making, transparency, accountability, and doing things properly. That’s precisely the language the market wants to hear, particularly from clients who have seen what happens when governance is treated as a box to be ticked.
BlackRock as OCIO, institutional capability, privately delivered
Perhaps the biggest signal of Granite Bay’s intent is its appointment of BlackRock as outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), providing advisers and clients access to BlackRock’s global investment capabilities and the track record of its Multi-Asset Strategy and Solutions (MASS) team.
BlackRock executives positioned the partnership as emblematic of a fast-evolving private wealth market, one in which investors are seeking greater accessibility, transparency, diversification and institutional-quality solutions.
In other words, the private wealth client of 2026 wants the best of both worlds: the depth of a global engine room, without the distance, conflicts, or inertia that can come with big institutions.
Investment committee designed for independence
Alongside the OCIO arrangement, Granite Bay has formed a highly credentialled investment committee, independently chaired by Debbie Alliston, former head of investments at BT Investment Management and former CIO of AMP Capital’s $80 billion multi-asset business, supported by external consultants including BlackRock’s David Griffith and John Lockton, head of investment strategy at MST Financial.
That structure matters. It’s another marker of where the best independent firms are heading, stronger frameworks, clearer accountability, and investment processes that stand up to scrutiny.
Why Granite Bay’s timing makes sense
Granite Bay is arriving at a moment when client expectations are shifting quickly, particularly among high-net-worth families who want:
- Transparency, in governance, fees, and decision-making
- Modern infrastructure, technology, reporting and security
- Institutional-grade investment access, without feeling like a small account at a large machine
The firm’s core claim is that it has been built specifically for those demands, not retro-fitted to them.
And if Granite Bay executes as it plans to do, it will reinforce a broader trend that’s reshaping the sector: high-quality, adviser-led firms stepping into the space between boutique care and global capability, and doing it with momentum.
In that sense, Granite Bay’s launch isn’t just one more new name in the market. It’s a statement that Australia’s wealth management industry is entering a more dynamic era, in which independence, modern systems and institutional partnerships can coexist, and where clients increasingly get real choice.
James is an experienced senior journalist and editor of The Inside Network's publications.
