Morgans announces CEO to step down

Morgans has announced that CEO John Clifford, who has worked at the firm since 1993 and became managing director in August 2016, will step down.

He will be succeeded by James Macaulay, who is currently the deputy CEO and director of private wealth and has worked at Morgans for almost 20 years. Having joined in 2005, he was promoted to the deputy CEO position last year.

“The board of directors thank John for his contribution and leadership. He has led Morgans through a period of significant growth and innovation, overseeing key transformations and he will remain as a director of [Morgans Holdings Australia],” said Morgans chairman Brian Sheahan.

“James has had a long and successful career at Morgans, and we believe he is well-positioned to lead the company into its next chapter.”

Clifford will remain at the firm until 31 October in order to ensure a smooth handover to Macaulay.

At the end of 2024, data from Wealth Data showed that Morgans had 430 financial advisers on its books, putting it at sixth place. The stockbroking and wealth management firm, which was founded in 1982, primarily offers investment advice and has 56 locations across Australia.

While other advice firms have suffered large fluctuations or declines in their adviser numbers, Wealth Data founder and director Colin Williams highlighted Morgans as an example of stability.

“Morgans are a bit of an interesting one because they have kind of gone under the radar, so to speak. They haven’t grown dramatically, but they haven’t lost [advisers] either, and that has been their benefit,” Williams said.

“They’ve been able to hold their advisers together really well. They’ve got a slightly different model – they do provide holistic advice, but it is more focused on investment advice.

“They watch the others fall in front of them and have kept themselves steady on the skates going round and round and round – that’s a credit to them. They’ve just kept on doing their job and haven’t changed their model in many years. It’s pretty much as it was and it seems to be paying off for them,” Williams added.