FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

About BNV Investment Partners

  • BNV Investment Partners is a Sydney-based investment governance and advisory firm. We provide the investment governance function for Australian wholesale businesses— designing and maintaining the investment governance framework, participating in or chairing the investment committee, exercising judgement over the Approved Product List, overseeing conflicts, and documenting and signing the investment decision record. BNV manages no product and no discretion over client money.

  • Not in the usual sense. Asset consultants advise asset owners — superannuation funds, endowments and institutions — and are generally built for institutional scale. BNV does something narrower: we provide the investment governance function for dealer groups and self-licensed businesses.

  • BNV works with Australian advice licensees — AFSL holders, dealer groups and self-licensed practices — that carry an investment governance obligation without an internal investment team to discharge it. BNV provides services to wholesale clients only.

  • No. And there is no one that can do this for you. You can outsource the activity and the book of evidence; the responsibility stays with the licensee. That's precisely why our record is built to let you stand behind your decisions rather than reconstruct them later.

  • Fees are scoped to your tier and cadence rather than the size of your book. We share indicative fees once we understand what you need. The quickest way to start is the governance maturity scorecard or contact us.

Boundaries and independence

  • Compliance checks that a process was followed. Governance decides whether the decision was appropriate (made by the right people, for the right reasons) and provides evidence for it. These are different questions, and we expect ASIC Will now be focusing on the second one.

  • The obligation doesn't scale with your size; it scales with what you advise on. We scope the cadence to your licence, not your book — which is exactly why an independent function works for firms without a dedicated governance with investment expertise.

  • BNV is not owned by, aligned to, or paid by any investment product issuer. BNV does not issue financial products, operate managed accounts, hold discretion over client money, or accept rebates or commissions. BNV is paid by its clients.

  • No. BNV does not hold discretion over client money, run portfolios, issue financial products, or operate managed accounts. BNV governs the decision; it does not implement the trade. This boundary is what allows BNV to be the check on an investment decision rather than a party to it.

  • BNV is paid by its client, for the work, at a stated fee, built from the hours, the cadence and the seniority of the people doing the work. BNV does not charge a percentage of funds under management, and does not accept rebates or commissions from platforms, product issuers or investment managers.

The objections

  • Because the provider that supplies the product cannot also be the check on it. Bundled support arrives free because it is a distribution cost, and the provider's interest is that its product stays on your menu. A board asked to demonstrate that its investment menu was independently governed cannot point to governance supplied by the party whose product is on the menu.

  • Both, depending on the market. In public markets a research house already covers the ground, so BNV governs their work — testing the methodology, interrogating the conclusions and challenging the process — rather than duplicating it. In private markets no research house provides that coverage, so BNV produces the due diligence itself, writes it up with a recommendation, and abstains from the decision at investment committee level.

  • No. A rating is an input; approving a product for your investment menu is a decision, and the decision is yours. ASIC has framed the licensee failing as an inadequate APL approval process and reliance on external research without exercising independent judgement.

Wholesale clients and licensing

  • A wholesale client is a client who meets the criteria in sections 761G or 761GA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) — for example, through the size of an investment, the value of their assets or income, or by qualifying as a professional or sophisticated investor. BNV provides services to wholesale clients only.

  • Delta Investment Partners Pty Ltd (ABN 39 697 900 477) trading as BNV Investment Partners is a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR No. 001322527) of Sandford Capital Pty Limited (ABN 82 600 590 887), which holds Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) 461981.