Why sophisticated Australians now invest globally

Lead-in paragraph

Australian wealth used to live mainly on the ASX and in local income products. That world is fading. Today, any serious portfolio has to look beyond our shores: the opportunity set has shifted, and the local market no longer reflects how Australians live, work and build businesses.

Section 1 – The local market has changed

Heading:
The old income toolkit is disappearing.

Body:
For years, Australian investors relied on a familiar mix of fully franked shares, listed hybrids and local corporate bonds to generate income. That toolkit is shrinking:

  • Hybrids are disappearing or being refinanced into more complex, less accessible structures.

  • The domestic corporate bond market has stayed shallow and selective, with fewer plain-vanilla opportunities for individuals.

  • At the same time, concentration in the big banks and a handful of large caps has increased, leaving many portfolios exposed to a narrow slice of the economy.

What used to feel like a complete menu is now just a small corner of what’s available globally.

Section 2 – The ASX is no longer the full opportunity set

Heading:
If you want real growth, you can’t stay on one exchange.

Body:
The ASX remains important, but it no longer captures the companies shaping technology, healthcare, energy transition and global consumer trends.

  • Many of Australia’s best growth stories now list offshore or are acquired before listing here.

  • The number of new listings has slowed, and delistings and takeovers have reduced the breadth of the local market.

  • Entire sectors – particularly global technology and innovation leaders – simply don’t exist at scale on the ASX.

If you want exposure to the world’s leading tech and growth companies, you have to look overseas. Staying purely domestic means accepting a structurally narrower opportunity set.

Section 3 – Global lives, global balance sheets

Heading:
Australians live global lives. Their portfolios should match.

Body:
We earn in one currency, spend and travel in others, and increasingly build businesses that operate across multiple regions. Yet many balance sheets are still anchored to a single exchange and a single currency.

  • Families hold assets, properties and businesses across multiple countries.

  • Founders receive equity in global entities listed in New York, London or Asia.

  • Next-generation heirs expect their wealth to support global education, careers and opportunities, not just domestic needs.

A modern portfolio has to reflect this reality. Global lives require global balance sheets.

Section 4 – What this means for sophisticated investors

Heading:
The challenge isn’t just access. It’s structure.

Body:
Getting to global markets is no longer the hard part; most brokers and platforms can route an order. The real challenge is what happens after that:

  • How do you finance against global portfolios in a way that’s safe and scalable?

  • How do you manage currency, concentration and liquidity risk across multiple venues and custodians?

  • How do advisers, accountants and platforms keep oversight when assets sit everywhere?

That’s the gap Volans was built to fill.

We don’t exist because Australia is “behind”.
We exist because Australian investors have moved ahead of what traditional infrastructure was designed for.

Section 5 – Where Volans fits

Heading:
The institutional rails for Australia’s global investors.

Body:
Volans provides the credit and asset-servicing infrastructure that sits beneath this new reality:

  • Portfolio-secured credit that works for domestic and offshore holdings.

  • Multi-bank funding and risk frameworks designed for concentrated and global positions.

  • Asset services and reporting that allow platforms and advisers to supervise off-platform assets and maintain their economic and governance role.

We don’t replace banks, platforms or advisers. We give them a stronger foundation to support Australians whose wealth – and lives – are now unavoidably global.