Perpetual

Perpetual is one of Australia’s leading ASX-listed, diversified financial institutions and blue-chip brands. What we do goes beyond managing money and why we do it is to create a better future. Working here, you’ll not only be part of a growing global team, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with high-calibre people whilst delivering exceptional outcomes for our clients.

Across our four business divisions - Perpetual Asset Management Australia, Perpetual Asset Management International, Perpetual Private and Perpetual Corporate Trust - we aim to protect and grow our clients' wealth, knowing that by doing so we can make a difference in their lives.

Our vision is to be the most trusted in financial services and we’re here to deliver enduring prosperity for our clients, our people and for the communities in which we work. We’ve worked hard over 130+ years to build our reputation as a trusted brand.

Our purpose is Enduring Prosperity; For our people, our clients, and the communities in which we live and work. By living our purpose, we aim to achieve our vision to be the most trusted in financial services. Perpetual’s strong heritage is built on trust, integrity, stability, and unwavering focus on doing the right thing.

Fordham

Fordham is a specialist part of Perpetual Private, focusing on private businesses, established wealthy, NFP’s and large corporate trusts. Fordham is one of the fastest-growing chartered accounting firms in Australia, helping our clients with specialist accounting advice which has earnt us the title of a trusted advisor.

As Fordham is a specialist part of Perpetual, you will also have access to a widely recognised and well-respected financial services organization to ensure we take the best of Perpetual and Fordham to our clients.

Perpetual is a place where you can grow, thrive. Think workplace flexibility, sustainability and diversity and inclusion – and these are just some of the reasons why our people do what they do at Perpetual.

The employee experience at Perpetual is unique, and we often say that we are ‘big enough, small enough’. Our headcount makes us a small to medium sized firm, but we create a big impact with the work we do. Working at Perpetual you’ll not only be part of a growing global organisation, but you’ll have day-to-day access to key decision makers and senior leaders of the business.

Our graduate program is designed to create the leaders of the future.  Because your success is essential to our growth, we are committed to help you develop your skills and plan your career.

Our workplace philosophy at Perpetual is about investing in people, collaborating with peers, putting clients first, and offering an environment where diversity of thought is encouraged.

Working at Perpetual, you’ll partner with great people and do work that matters because everything we do is underpinned by our core values: excellence, integrity and partnership.

The Perpetual Graduate Program is an essential component in building our pipeline of talent and will support you to grow your skills to deliver exceptional outcomes in an environment of high performance and integrity. You will be provided with career development and the support you need every step of the way.

As a Perpetual Graduate, you will complete two rotations in real roles doing meaningful work across 2 of our core business units: Perpetual Private and Perpetual Corporate Trust. 

Dedicated Development Program

In the Perpetual Graduate Program, your development is important to us.

Your journey with Perpetual begins through your recruitment process where we build a strong insight of your respective strengths and potential areas for development. We subsequently use this information to build a blended learning approach that includes customised face-to-face workshops, online learning, and access to leaders. Your development program is designed to set you up for future success and high performance in our organisation.

In designing your learning journey, we take consideration of the skills you need to perform at the appropriate stage in your graduate program. For example, on joining Perpetual our focus will be helping you transition into the workplace. As you progress through the program, we may cover areas including understanding your-self and performing in diverse teams, influencing others, building resilience and developing leadership capability. This compliments any formal technical training that you may complete as part of your specific role.

Your tailored learning journey will allow you to network and build strong relationships, not only with your own graduate cohort but with key stakeholders in our business. As a Graduate, you will have exposure to different businesses and clients where you will gain a depth of experience in our organisation, access to leaders in our business, and a structured support community of buddies and mentors.

Perpetual Private provides tailored, holistic financial advice and solutions for successful individuals, families and community-based organisations.

Our advisers provide strategic advice on superannuation and retirement planning, general investment, asset protection, insurance, tax management, estate planning, aged care, social security, succession planning and philanthropy.

As one of Australia’s largest managers of philanthropic funds, we manage approximately 1,000 charitable trusts and endowment funds, which support medical, social, environmental, religious, cultural and educational causes.

The unique combination of professional trustee management experience, fiduciary heritage and investment management capability has seen Perpetual Private become a key partner in the prudent and effective management of Native Title trusts, a new and growing part of our business.

Perpetual Corporate Trust’s (PCT) vision is to be the leading fiduciary and digital solutions provider to the banking and financial services industry.  Our strategy is simple: enable client success by focusing on helping clients, and the broader eco system, be more effective, efficient, scalable and economical, while managing ever-increasing cyber security risks and maintaining compliance.

PCT has four business divisions with a broad range of products and services:

• Perpetual Digital, PCT’s innovation company provides data services, industry roundtables, software-as-a-service products as well as fixed income dealing and advisory through Laminar Capital;
• Debt Market Services, where we are the market leader in services such as trustee, document custodian, agency, trust management, accounting, standby servicing and reporting solutions;
• Managed Fund Services offering includes responsible entity, wholesale trustee, custodian, investment management and accounting services; and finally
• Our Singapore business provides both debt markets and managed funds products, specialising in Singapore Real Estate Investment Trusts “S-REITS” and cross border capital flows into Australia.

Jessamy Burton

People and Culture Graduate at Perpetual / Fordham

I feel grateful that I have been able to take my time to discover my interests and passions and to be working in a field that I really enjoy. Taking time out from study to travel and work really helped to shape my career pathway.

What's your job about?

I am currently working within Perpetual’s People and Culture Team who are responsible for developing and executing the company’s HR strategy. I am lucky to be gaining exposure to the many facets of HR, which includes recruitment, performance and rewards, organisational development, HR systems, and HR business partnering support.

As a graduate, I am in the process of completing four rotations through different People and Culture teams. At the moment I am working in the Talent Acquisition team, who take care of all things recruitment. Often you’ll find me talking to candidates who have applied for roles at Perpetual and booking in their interviews, as well as getting involved with projects to try to optimise our recruitment strategy and processes. I have also been looking at the data and analytics we receive through various systems and have been compiling them into a dashboard. It’s a great mix of connecting with people and my team and getting stuck into a spreadsheet!

What's your background?

I grew up in Perth and didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I finished High School, so I enrolled in an Arts degree at the University of Western Australia. I was fortunate enough to fall into psychology through completing a few elective units and discovered a passion for the science of people and human behaviour. After finishing my undergraduate degree I was ready for a break from studying and spent time travelling through Europe and Asia before I wound up working in the corporate sector. I decided to combine my interests in business and psychology and went back to uni to complete an Honours in Psychology before moving to Brisbane to complete a Masters in Organisational Psychology at the University of Queensland. I was ready for another adventure in a new city, so I applied for Perpetual’s graduate program and moved to Sydney at the start of 2021. Looking back I feel grateful that I have been able to take my time to discover my interests and passions and to be working in a field that I really enjoy. Taking time out from study to travel and work really helped to shape my career pathway, and I hope to live and work abroad one day (when travel restrictions allow it)!

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Absolutely. The people within the People and Culture team come from a range of backgrounds, including various business and commerce degrees, psychology and HR-related disciplines. If you are interested in people and asking questions around how organisations can best support, motivate and get the most out of their employees, this could be the area for you! The People and Culture Team value diversity of thought and recognise that having a range of people with different backgrounds can create richer conversations and enhanced outcomes.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I was really interested in getting involved with a specific project and, after expressing interest, was able to support the project by conducting interviews with various people within the business, which was also a great way of understanding different roles and business units at Perpetual. Working on this project showed me that Perpetual is genuinely committed to supporting me in finding the areas and projects where my skills and interests fit best!

What are the limitations of your job?

Although being able to rotate through different teams gives me broad exposure to HR, the limitation is that you don’t have a lot of time to really get stuck into longer projects and progress them over six months or a year.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

1. Take your time to work out what your passions and interests are. I always felt like I was in a rush to figure out what I wanted to do, but taking a little longer to travel, work and seize unexpected opportunities all helped me to get to a role and career pathway that I am really excited about.
2. Do things that excite and intrigue you, not because they look good on your CV. The things you do outside of study and work speak to your personality, interests and skills and may be more relevant to a job than you think. I spoke about my experiences surf boat rowing in my interview!
3. Give yourself options. It can be easy to set your heart on one pathway, working for a specific company or getting a particular job. Keep an open mind to the opportunities around you and take a few risks, whether it be applying for roles that don’t perfectly align to your area of study or considering alternative areas of study or work.

Jai Sartori

Graduate - Perpetual Private

The knowledge and financial skills I’m learning at work are directly translatable to my life outside work, which I consider to be a great bonus!

What's your job about?

At Perpetual Private we offer wealth management services to a wide range of clients such as not-for-profit organisations, small businesses, high net worth individuals, self-managed superannuation funds, family trusts, etc. Our key areas of responsibility include protecting and growing our clients' wealth, building an investment strategy around our clients' investment preferences and risk tolerance, ensuring compliance with relevant regulatory entities and meeting with clients and working with them to ensure all financial needs are accommodated. My current role as a graduate at Perpetual Private has me doing two rotations of six months in different business units throughout the division. My current role is in the paraplanning team where we assist the financial advisors in producing reports for clients as well as rebalancing client investment portfolios and producing modelling & projections for client assets when required. More specifically, a typical day for me involves communicating with our financial advice team regarding their client’s individual circumstances and then, working with the latest research from Perpetual Private’s Investment Research Team, adjust client portfolios and produce the relevant client facing documents.

What's your background?

I grew up in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Dandenong ranges.

I went to high school at St. Josephs College in Ferntree Gully where I graduated in 2015. I then enrolled at Monash University with a double degree in Engineering and Commerce. During my time at high school and uni, I was working part time at Woolworths which really helped to develop my soft skills in communicating with customers. After my first year at uni, I realised that I was much more passionate about commerce and so I decided to enrol in a second major in my commerce degree and discontinue engineering. I graduated from university at the end of 2019, then in early 2020, I travelled to the UK where I stayed with my partner’s family throughout the initial lockdowns. During this time, I was completing an online internship with a start-up impact investment fund that focused on ESG investing. Whilst abroad I began applying for graduate positions back in Australia as I planned to move back early in 2021. One of the graduate positions I applied for was with Perpetual and I was lucky enough that they got back to me and asked me to take place in the interview process. Being on the other side of the world I had to complete an online assessment centre in the middle of the night, which was certainly an interesting experience! After a few rounds of interviews, I was fortunate enough to receive a job offer which I gladly accepted. I flew home in January of 2021 and completed my 2 weeks hotel quarantine in Melbourne. After about 3 weeks in Melbourne, I flew up to Sydney to start my graduate role with Perpetual.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, whilst the basic knowledge that I learnt at uni has really helped with understanding certain concepts and technical skills in my position, I think someone with a different background could do my job. You learn a lot of specific skills that are relevant to the position when you start working and I’m lucky enough that Perpetual provides a good environment to learn and ask questions. The most important skills aren’t necessarily what you already know or what you learnt at uni or school, but how open and motivated you are to learn new things, be adaptable and bring a good attitude to work.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The best part about my current position is the exposure I get to different types of clients and seeing how much an investment strategy can change depending on the circumstances of the client, and the given market conditions. I really enjoy the collaborative aspect of the job as well. Seeing how the different business units come together to provide the best service to the client is really interesting. The knowledge and financial skills I’m learning at work are directly translatable to my life outside work, which I consider to be a great bonus!

What are the limitations of your job?

I’d say the biggest limitation to my current position is the initial learning curve of starting a graduate role, however, this is quite common in the transition from study to work. I have found that whilst my learnings from uni provide important foundational knowledge there was definitely a steep learning curve in transitioning to the workforce. Having said that, as long as you are motivated, open to learning new things and bring a good attitude to work it is very manageable. I was also lucky that Perpetual provides a great environment to ask questions and a structured learning process for the skills in my role.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

1. Take advantage of all the opportunities you have through University. Whether that be studying abroad or attending presentations from interesting speakers, there’s plenty of great opportunities available through uni that I probably could have made better use of!
2. Plan for your transition from uni to full time work sooner rather than later. This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your time at uni or incorporate travel or time away from study but try to have some form of plan for transitioning out of study. This will give you peace of mind and save you from thinking too much about the future, which I definitely did!
3. Make use of all the spare time you have between semesters to do things you’re passionate about. You get a lot of downtime when you’re studying, and one thing I would advise is to try to make the most of it. Whether that be travelling or finding hobbies, it’s probably one of the best times you’ll get to do them!

Diversity and inclusion at Perpetual

Fordham and Perpetual have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. We are committed to building a sustainable workplace environment that is open and accepting of individual differences, where our people have the opportunity to thrive and realise their full potential.

Our values, policies, development opportunities and practices all promote diversity and equal opportunity and create an environment where individual differences are harnessed for business success. Read our Diversity Policy

New report on workplace gender equality

Perpetual has recently produced and submitted a report on the profile of its workforce for the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), as required by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. We welcome feedback on our WGEA report. Read a copy of the full report and email: [email protected] to provide comments.

For further information on the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, visit the WGEA website.

"As the CEO of Perpetual, I am fully committed to continuing to build a more diverse and inclusive environment and achieving gender equality. I believe that diverse and genuinely inclusive teams make our people feel more positive and engaged about their work at Perpetual, which encourages them to stay with us for longer. This can be achieved through creating a culture where people feel safe and confident, which is why at Perpetual we have zero tolerance of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying. Diversity of thought and opinion is a big part of what makes an organisation successful – it leads to better decisions and better results, which is good for our clients, our people and our shareholders. Though we still have work to do, I am confident that we can exceed our aims in the short to medium term."

Rob Adams, CEO and Managing Director of Perpetual Limited

Perpetual believes that building a gender-balanced leadership team and workforce delivers better business results.

Perpetual passionate about creating a fulfilling, diverse and inclusive place to work. Given their strategic ambitions and their commitment to create enduring prosperity for their clients, this has never been more critical. The Perpetual approach to diversity and inclusion focuses on gender equality, workplace flexibility, cultural diversity and building an inclusive environment where their people can thrive.

Perpetual believes that building a gender balanced leadership team and workforce delivers better business results. Perpetual proud to have been recognised as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by WGEA (Workplace Gender Equality Agency) for the past consecutive four years.

At Perpetual, sustainability is about creating enduring prosperity for their clients, people, communities, and the environment. To achieve this, they'll continue building a safe and inclusive culture for their people to thrive, while making a positive impact on the environment and in their communities, working with philanthropists and not-for-profit organisations, and strengthening relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Reducing impact to the environment

Climate change presents risks for the enduring prosperity of Perpetual clients, communities & their business. They're taking action to address climate change by reducing their own environmental impact, investing responsibly for their clients & strengthening their governance and disclosure on climate change. It's important to manage the impact of their own operations. Their major contributors to carbon emissions are related to electricity consumption in their offices and business travel. They work hard to reduce both.

Responsible Investing

Perpetual at a crucial stage in the evolution of responsible investing. They set up their first Ethical SRI fund in 2002. They’re also thrilled that Perpetual acquired Trillium Asset Management in the US. Trillium is one of the pioneers in integrated ESG investing with a 38-year track record of delivering investment returns for clients while leveraging clients' capital for positive social & environmental impact.

At Perpetual, their vision for reconciliation is an Australia that is more equal, where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have the same opportunities for prosperity and are actively engaged in their own future.  A future where individuals, organisations and communities have the support and resources to ensure good governance, economic independence, and mutual respect for their cultures.   Perpetual want to see an Australia where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and businesses are self-sustaining, self-determined and are valued for their contribution to the Australian experience.

Perpetual recently launched their second Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan.  This sets out Perpetual’s plan to provide greater opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders people’s and build respect of First Nations’ culture and histories.

Perpetual five key areas for reconciliation and action are:

• Partnering with clients to build enduring prosperity
• Supporting communities to build independence
• Creating an inclusive and culturally respectful workplace
• Ensuring strong governance and reporting

To read more about Perpetual’s commitment to reconciliation please click here.