Austock head of private clients Joseph Youssef said the financial crisis is presenting the firm with a generational opportunity to tap into the high net worth client segment.
"There's a unique opportunity at the moment because there's a lot of disillusioned investors and a lot of disillusioned advisers out there," said Youssef, who joined Austock on 23 March.
"And I think people are crying out for a client-focused ethical business from the debris of the market."
The group is aggressively looking to hire private client advisers and provide them with an environment where they get financial support on top of normal dealer group support.
"We're absolutely looking to hire advisers - good quality, high calibre advisers who we're prepared to reward appropriately," Youssef said.
"But the focus is not letting advisers sit in the office and worry about where their next ticket's coming from, but to give them financial support upfront to allow them to market and speak to clients because there are clients out there who are crying out for quality advice."
Under Youssef's lead, Austock will service high net worth clients, corporate clients and institutions, family offices and self-managed superannuation fund trustees.
"We've got equity research, we've got a fantastic corporate team and we've got a very robust back office as well. It's very seamless to get accounts opened here," he said.
"We want to develop a very ethically-based stockbroking franchise here and we want to target ourselves as a stockbroker of choice.
"We want to provide regular portfolio reviews to clients and liaise with them regularly. We also want to enhance their returns through structured products and warrants."
For now, Austock will grow organically but may turn to acquisitions in the medium term.
