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Butterfield Consulting Services

Speaking from Experience

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About David Butterfield

I am David Butterfield. I have worked in Australian financial services licensing and funds management since 2000, and in pooled investments for most of my career before that. I am a sole practitioner. When you engage Butterfield Consulting, you work with me.

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Qualifications and memberships

  • Chartered Accountant
  • Registered tax agent
  • Professional member of the Institute of Financial Professionals Australia

Career

I trained at Touché Ross and then PricewaterhouseCoopers before starting my own practice.

For many years, around half of my clients were film and television producers, whose productions were financed through pooled investment structures. That work taught me how to bring together investors, lawyers, accountants and regulators around a single project with a fixed deadline.

Since 2000 my focus has been Australian financial services licensing and the funds management industry. In that time I have:

  • been managing director of two funds management businesses, investing in property, mortgages, securities and derivatives;
  • been chief financial officer of an institutional funds management business investing in securities and derivatives;
  • prepared applications and variations for Australian Financial Services Licences and Australian Credit Licences for clients across Australia;
  • acted as responsible manager for licence holders for more than 20 years, with a focus on property, securities and mortgages;
  • sat as an external member of compliance committees for registered schemes;
  • set up retail and wholesale managed investment schemes, project managing every part of the process from structure to launch.

My experience covers both retail and wholesale licences, and both sides of the regulator's desk: as the person who prepares the application, and as the responsible manager the regulator relies on afterwards.

How I work

I take on a limited number of matters at a time so that each one gets the necessary attention. I give fixed fee proposals in writing. I tell you early if I think your plan will not get past the regulator, and what would. I work with your existing solicitors, auditors and administrators, or I can introduce you to people I have worked with for years.

I am based in Melbourne and work with clients in most states of Australia, mainly by phone and video, with meetings in person when they help.