Great Innings: Don Stewart retires after a half century of financial advice

 When a young Don Stewart was working as a farm manager, he decided to work in insurance to raise the capital to buy his own farm and fulfil his childhood dream. But life sometimes plays out in unexpected ways, and Don is now retiring after 49 years of working in the financial services industry – not on the farm.

He started in the insurance business at the age of 24. “My original position, like most insurance advisers, was to work as a tied agent and at that time I worked for National Mutual. My reason for choosing them was that was the company I held insurance with before I started selling it.”

Don has always owned insurance himself and believes this is key to being able to sell it in a meaningful way.

“If you want to write big chunks of insurance, you need to own big chunks of it.

“It’s a crucial thing in life. If you are advised by a real estate agent to buy a property and you find out  they don’t own a property themself, do they understand the product? Or if you deal with a mechanic and their car is always breaking down, they shouldn’t be fixing your car.”

Don did realise his dream to buy a farm – 1,500 acres in Dannevirke with two other parties. Eventually, he found he had lost touch with the farming world. The decision was made to sell the property and focus on the insurance and financial planning business.

As it happened, Don was getting frequent requests from his insurance clients for help with personal investment planning. Realising that many people did not have the time, inclination, or expertise to manage their investments, he took the opportunity to provide these services to his clients by opening D L Stewart & Associates in 1987 (later Stewart Financial Group) at their original Karamu Road site in Hastings.

Over 36 years of Stewart Financial Group has brought many changes. The business has grown to a seven-strong adviser team specialising in risk insurance, wealth management & financial planning, and KiwiSaver – plus a dedicated team of 13 support staff. With offices based in Hastings and Wellington, Stewart Group now services over 2,500 clients across New Zealand.

“I’m very proud of how Stewart Group has evolved, and with my son Nick continuing at the helm, I’m excited to see the continued growth of the company I started,” said Don. 

“In those early days we had a very small advisory practice so dependent on one adviser and one PA. Now we have an integrated business, looking after a significant number of clients across our business.”

Don’s son and Stewart Group Director, Nick Stewart, commented, “Dad has been an industry trailblazer, becoming one of New Zealand’s first independent advisers 36 years ago, and then boldly decoupling product from advice and going fee only with our investment advice way back in 2003.

“I think one of his legacies is that he has built a holistic, independent and thriving financial planning business. Despite the company’s growth, he has ensured it remains family and employee-owned. We are incredibly grateful for his unwavering dedication to the business and his invaluable stewardship. Dad has always prioritised the interest of others, so it will be wonderful to see him dedicate some time for himself, Mum and the family in his retirement.” said Nick.

As for what Don will be doing next – “My wife Mary and I have a list of travel plans we’ve discussed, so now we can tick off some of our bucket list destinations. And I’ll put more energy into my family, especially my six grandchildren, while also working on improving my golf handicap to keep up with Mary.”