FINSIA Member Profile 
Nigel Stewart SF FIN
Director, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) Australia | Member since 1984 | Senior Fellow since 2023
After more than 45 years in professional financial services, Nigel Stewart has amassed extensive local experience and global knowledge in the wealth management and funds management sectors – experience that he now employs in areas like sustainability, philanthropy and educating the public about systematic investing.
Among Nigel’s many professional roles, he is a founding and executive director of DFA Australia, the Australian arm of global fund management firm Dimensional Fund Advisors. He also chairs Nigel Stewart & Associates, a separate wealth management consulting business.
As well as the above, Nigel is a senior fellow of FINSIA, a fellow of the Financial Planning Association of Australia and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
“Ever since I was a child growing up in Scotland I have been interested in finance,” Nigel says. “As an advisor, I embraced the opportunity to help educate people about the sources of return and the difference they can make to outcomes through their own behaviour.”
Later, after entering the world of finance in his 20s, his eyes were opened upon reading a landmark academic paper by Brinson, Hood and Beebower on the overwhelming importance of asset allocation in explaining the variation in returns of one portfolio against another.
“That really was my “a-ha” moment in finance,” Nigel recalls. “It was that more than anything that drove me to adopting a systematic investment approach – one that is based on rules, evidence and science and that eliminates the need for forecasting or speculating.”
With a lifelong interest in philanthropy and sustainability, Nigel now provides advice to, and is on the board of, several foundations, including The Friends of The Duke of Edinburgh Award in Australia. As he recalls, his career has broadened considerably over the decades.
“I started in underwriting back in the 70s and then after five years moved to stock broking and investment banking,” he recalls. “It was in those years that I learnt valuable lessons about the importance of establishing and maintaining trust in long-term successful client relationships.”
By 1983, he was ready to go out on his own and established Nigel Stewart and Associates, an independent investment advisory firm. Three years later, having seen the conflicts inherent in commissions, he was one of the earliest pioneers in adopting a ‘fee for service’ advice model.
“It made sense to me to be on the same side of the table as the clients. And I found that if you succeed in your key role of helping the clients avoid making stupid decisions, they will be grateful, see your fee as a worthwhile investment, and be more inclined to refer you to others.”
In 1995, Nigel merged his business with Potter Warburg (UBS) and subsequently was appointed Chairman and CEO of UBS Wealth Management. In 1999, he left that company and started Stewart Partners, another independent advisory firm. After developing that business for more than 20 years, he moved on in 2021 to focus on his current roles.
First appointed a founding director of DFA Australia in 1994, Nigel remains an Executive Director. The business now manages around $40 billion for clients in Australia and New Zealand and employs more than 100 staff across two offices, in Sydney and Melbourne.
“My role at Dimensional has been in growing the business in Australia, New Zealand and earlier in APAC,” he says. “In doing so, I educate advisors on global best practices and how to embrace systematic investing to achieve desirable outcomes for their clients. And, of course, I arrived at this destination having had extensive experience working in traditional broking and advisory businesses!”
“The most pressing challenges I see for investors is ensuring they have sufficient capital and cash flow to support them and their families post-retirement. That doesn’t change,” he says.
“But there is also the severe threat posed to our planet by climate change. I see a key role for advisors is showing clients how they can connect their social and environmental values to their investment goals without sacrificing financial outcomes.”
“Importantly, with approximately $3.5 trillion about to be inherited by the younger generations over the next 20 years in Australia and New Zealand, it is imperative that advisers develop skills and knowledge incorporating sustainable investment strategies or potentially they will lose business. An excellent pathway to successfully communicating with younger generations is through sustainability and philanthropy.”
“The best career advice I have ever received was to pursue passionately and vigorously what you believe in. One of my mentors was Alastair Urquhart AO CBE, who was the founder of the Securities Institute of Australia (now FINSIA) and a long-term stockbroker. I found Alastair an inspirational leader with integrity and common sense. I strongly recommend people starting out in finance identify and work with a mentor.
