Respected business consultant Keith Stacey has been appointed Chairman of leading Tasmanian financial planning and advisory firm Aequis. The firm's current general manager Stephen Harvey has been made Chief Executive Officer.

Mr Stacey, a senior consultant with Scotwork Australia has more than 30 years national and international business experience, A former Director of Adult Education in Tasmania, he is a highly credentialed consultant and was recently appointed chair of the State Government's high-level Business Tax and Regulation Reference Group, established to identify reform measures for Tasmania's tax and regulatory regime.

He sits as an independent member of the Aequis Board enhancing the firm's corporate governance, transparency and industry best practice approach.

Stephen Harvey has held senior management positions across Australia, is a graduate of the Mt Eliza School of Management and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He held the position of general manager with the company for the past three years.

The strengthened management structure will support Aequis' continued growth at a time when others in the industry are contracting. This growth is being driven by the firm's financial advice model that focuses heavily on client outcomes.

Under the Aequis business model, unique in the financial planning industry where management is normally undertaken by the principal, the firm's three principals Ian Ritchie, Doug Davey and Rod Scurrah, focus on their speciality of providing advice to clients.

This approach is enabling Aequis to achieve growth by supporting clients who are seeking expert advice in the current challenging financial market environment. The latest appointments follow the announcement in November last year that Aequis advisor Angela Jenkins was sole Tasmanian finalist in the Financial Planning Association's Value of Advice Awards.

* Aequis is a leading fee-for-advice business able to provide strategic financial advice to assist clients achieve their financial and lifestyle goals, regardless of their superannuation fund membership.