Our Team

Ben Kingsley – Founding Director – Property Investment Analyst and Advisor
Board Member of Property Professionals of Australia
Qualified Property Investment Advisor (QPIA) - PIPA Accredited Program - Deakin Prime
Certificate IV Mortgage Lending, MFAA Member, Assoc. Diploma of Business – Tourism & Travel

As the founding Director of Empower Wealth, I wanted to set up a business that specialised in building passive incomes and wealth for either an earlier retirement and or a more prosperous retirement. So we have built a business that provides specialised knowledge in the key areas of all the wealth creation professions, including Property Investing, Finance, Money and Wealth Planning, Risk Management, Superannuation, Shares, Managed Funds & Estate Planning

I have an unwavering belief that with a little effort, a commitment to building knowledge and a support network of qualified professionals, anyone can vastly improve their wealth outcomes, almost irrespective of what income they currently earn.

Investing & Property Investing Experience:

I have over 17 years of experience in purchasing residential property investments and in building a multi-million dollar property portfolio for me and my family, buying my first property when I was just 23.

As a residential property specialist investor I have mentored thousands of people through our forum events and educational workshops. Plus I’ve personally helped hundreds of people and companies invest into millions of dollars worth of residential property for either owner occupied or investment purposes, since becoming a finance broker back in 2004.

Not all property will deliver as an investment, in fact I would put a figure of only 25% of property is going to deliver the above average returns in both capital growth and income, so those looking to use borrowings face the very real danger they will lose money over the short and long terms, so getting it right could be the difference in millions of dollars of lost wealth over the next decade or two.

My goal is to simply provide my clients and potential property investors with better skills to ensure they achieve a better than average return for this investments and have a better fundamental understanding of how money and finance work, so they too can achieve their financial independence. I want to ensure they don’t get railroaded into any get rich quick investment shames!

I am extremely confident that I, along with my experienced team of qualified specialists, can add value to those clients who want to benefit from our years of experience and in depth knowledge from the professional wealth advisory services we provide.

In November of 2010, I was appointed to the board of Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA)– A not for profit association whose mandate is to increase the professionalism of the property investment industry and work with government to regulate the industry to ensure full transparency is in play for consumers and for those consumers to only work with qualified professionals and not ‘sales agents or marketeers’.

Hobbies / Interests:
Outside of my passion for property and investing, I am a very keen traveller. I love visiting new and off the main tourist track places all over the world.
I’m a keen follower of most sports including Aussie Rules – our indigenous game! Happy to spend time playing Basketball, Volleyball and the odd round of golf.

Favourite Book:
Long walk to Freedom – (The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela)

Favourite Movie:
Shawshank Redemption

Favourite Music:
Happy with almost all forms of music, although very limited attention span for rap, hip hop or opera. Preferred mostly home grown talent, from Paul Kelly to Jet to Missy Higgins……

Favourite Food:
(Steak and Chips) – The simple pleasures! Although I am also very partial to anything my wife cooks.

Cameron Morgan - Professional Mortgage Strategist
Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Physiotherapy, Certificate IV in Financial Services (Finance /Mortgage Broking), MFAA Member

I joined the Empower Wealth team after searching for a new challenge and to pursue a career in an area I am very passionate about – Property, Finance and Investing. I have previously come from a Physiotherapy background, where I spent 5 years building and expanding my own clinic. I transformed the clinic from a one therapist clinic to a business that had 5 therapists and 4 reception staff and tripled its turnover over this time. I have been involved in finance broking for the last 2 years and the transition from Physiotherapist to Finance broker was not a huge stretch as I was already delivering a quality service to clients based on trust, honest and integrity. At Empower Wealth we provide this as well as quality education and experience.

Investing/Finance Experience
As well as being a successful business owner, I have been investing in property for the last 9 years. I first started investing in property when I was living in Perth WA. I was fortunate enough to be expanding my property and investing knowledge at a time when there were great opportunities in the inner city suburbs of Perth, and purchased before the boom hit the WA market. This investing success has allowed my wife and I, to accelerate our investment portfolio since returning home to Victoria and we are well on our way to achieving our goal of financial freedom. Having a number of properties in our portfolio has also enabled me to gain a good understanding of the importance of structuring the finance correctly, as it has allowed us to expand our property portfolio. It has also enabled me to understand the importance of purchasing the properties in the correct structures for asset protection and tax minimization. I thoroughly enjoy assisting people to expand their knowledge on property investment and helping to set and achieve their goals and dreams. I like taking a proactive approach to motivate and mentor clients as they start to continue on their investing journey.

Hobbies / Interests
When not spending time with my wife and 2 young children, I enjoy any sport. Now that I have finished playing, I have a particular enjoyment of watching the Geelong Football Club. I also like playing golf (although rather poorly), cycling and am keen to improve my surfing ability (dubious) whenever I get the chance.

Favorite Food
You can not go past a great plate of Spaghetti Bolognaise and I also love Seafood.

Favorite Music
Anything that is not Rap or Heavy metal

Favorite Book
Lance Armstrong – Its not about the bike

Favorite Movie
Lock, Stock and two Smoking Barrels

Steven Cruz - Professional Finance Strategist

Educated in the states with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, Steve has over 22 years of mortgage lending expertise building a solid reputation for integrity, dependability, and value, due in large part to his unwavering attention to quality and the unfailing pursuit of customer satisfaction. Steve soon learned that one’s home is the foundation for their family's lifestyle, and he honours that philosophy by making sure your new home loan meets your every desire.

As a fellow investor in property, himself, Steve’s Mortgage and Property experience will shine through in his ability to inform and educate you to greatly enhance your decision making in selecting the right option for your needs.

Whatever your stage in life - whether you are a first-time home-buyer, a growing family realising your dreams, or an active fellow investor, Steve’s free mortgage consultancy service, can assist you in selecting the RIGHT home loan.

Awards & Recognition:
Prior to moving to Australia in early 2008, Steve had a highly decorated career in America. These awards recognise customer service and client care: One of the reasons we have handpicked Steve to join our team at Empower Wealth and look after our client’s mortgage needs.

JLH Mortgage – Loan Officer of the Year: 2005, 2006, and 2007
Countrywide Bank – Circle of Excellence (top 5% in the USA): 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007.

Hobbies / Interests:
During my free time, you will most likely find me taking a walk through the city with my partially paralysed Dalmatian, poking my head into the Crown for a quick game of Blackjack, watching the latest live theatre performance to hit town, “Cruzing” the state in my prize winning ’67 VW Kombi or whipping-up a batch of my famous Margaritas and a Mexican meal for my family and friends.

Favourite Book:
The Prince - Nicolo Machiavelli

Favourite Movie:
Sunset Blvd

Favourite Music:
Rock from the 80's & 90's as well as anything from Gershwin, Coles Porter, Jerome Kern, Jerry Herman

Favourite Food:
It's a pretty close tie between Mexican & Italian food.

Justin Berger – Professional Mortgage Strategist
Cert IV Financial Services – Mortgage Broking, Adv. Dip. Business - Marketing

As a client of Ben Kingsley’s (and consequently Empower Wealth’s) for 4 years, the opportunity to join a committed and professional team was too good to pass up. With over 7 years in sales & marketing within the tourism and brewing industries it was time for a new challenge. Improving a clients wealth position, whether it be to enable them to retire early, wealthier or both, is a great responsibility but also provides great satisfaction.

Investing/Finance Experience
My wife and I purchased our first property in the inner west of Melbourne in 2006. It has proven to be an outstanding investment decision. With excellent capital growth it has put us in a position to launch our investing strategy over the coming months and years. The equity we have built up is ready to be leveraged with the right asset to help us on the road to financial independence. As an avid reader I am always looking to expand my investment knowledge but also listen to those with greater experience and understand how successful investors have got to where they are. As a bit of a property addict the researcher inside me means I am forever scanning the internet on property and investment and hitting the streets to get a feel for the current market.

Hobbies / Interests
I love most sports but my two favourites are Rugby Union and Golf. Since retiring from Rugby I have madly played golf and play anywhere and everywhere, rain hail or shine (much to my wife’s disgust). Outside of sport I dabble in home brewing. Life is too short to drink ordinary beer. We enjoy playing with our Maltese cross Dexter and catching up with family and friends whenever possible.

Favourite Food
We are always cooking something spicy so if the choice is there then a great curry is as good as it gets. There isn’t much I don’t enjoy though - Indian. Italian, Mexican, Thai or seafood.

Favourite Music
Mainly alt rock or indie bands. At the moment I am loving the Black Keys, Beck and Band of Horses.

Favourite Book
Anything by Ben Mezrich – Bringing Down the House, Rigged, Ugly Americans

Favourite Movie
It’s like asking which child is your favourite! I love Goodfellas, The Godfather, There’s Something About Mary, & Snatch to name a few.

Cristina Rodriguez - Loan Processing Officer

Investing/Finance Experience

After finishing my Bachelor's degree in English Language & Literature in Spain I moved to England to continue improving and practising my English skills. I liked the English way of life and after a few months weighing my job options I started working for Lloyds TSB, one of the main banks in England. I worked in the bank for 8 years progressing from a cashier to a Customer Service Manager.

After all those years in England my partner and I decided that we wanted to experience living somewhere else. After having visited Australia a few years previously ,when deciding where to go, Australia seemed like the best option.

I knew I wanted to work in Finance and in a job that offered me the chance to improve customer service, so I took a job working for GE Money improving their after sales and compliance processes. This gave me a great insight and experience in the Australian banking system.

After living in Italy for a few months and back in England for a year we got our Permanent Australian Residency and we came back to Melbourne.

Working for Empower Wealth has given me the opportunity to put to good use all my experience in Banking, Compliance and Customer Service while learning about Property Finance. I am enjoying working in this industry and being part of the Empower Wealth team.

Hobbies / Interests

As you may have guessed already I love travelling and specially getting to experience different cultures and ways of living. As far as I am concerned there are few things that compared to the excitement of getting on a plane to discover a new place. And when I cannot do this in person, I pick up a book and experience new things through the characters' eyes. It is not quite the same but if the book is good it comes very close!

Favourite Food

Being Spanish there really are no prices for guessing what my favourite type of food is; yes, you guessed it, I love Spanish food! But I can also say that Thai food and a perfectly cooked steak come very close second.

Favourite Music

I like all kinds of music ranging from Foo Fighters and Bon Jovi to Adele and ABBA. I like watching live concerts not only of big bands but also smaller bands in local pubs. At the moment I am enjoying going to see my partner's band, Dead Star Renegade, they rock!

Favourite book

Since reading has been one of my passions for as long as I remember, choosing just one book is nearly impossible. I do remember that my first favourite book was the NeverEnding Story and I still consider it one of the most imaginative books ever written. Since then quite a few others have made it into 'my favourite' category; to name a few: Wuthering Heights, It , My Sister's Keeper and Atlas de Geografia Humana.

Favourite movie

It is a very close call between Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Matrix and The Lion King. What can I say I like all kinds of movies!

Michael Pope - Money and Wealth Planner

Michael has an engineering background, and spent over 20 years at Telstra working in the engineering and information technology fields. During that time, he developed a number of analysis and forecasting tools on a variety of software platforms, starting out using the first ever PC spreadsheet program, VisiCalc, and progressing through MultiPlan and Smart Spreadsheet to every version of Excel for PCs. It was here that he first started to develop his knowledge and interest in modelling and forecasting software, creating a suite of tools to forecast demand for data services.

On leaving Telstra in 2002, he embarked on a career as a private Share Trader, and spent five years as an educator in the field of buying and selling shares for profit. His experience working with people as an educator led him to believe that there was a widespread need for more comprehensive education on financial matters, including money management and wealth creation. He utilised his software knowledge in this area also, developing software for theoretical simulation of the performance of mechanical share trading systems.

In 2008, Michael started looking for ways to extend his role as an educator and began to investigate systems and tools which would clearly and simply show people where they were and how they were going financially, and which could then assist people to understand and manage their money more effectively, with the ultimate goal of giving people the strategies and tools to create more wealth and achieve financial independence. This led to a meeting with Ben Kingsley, where both realised the synergy of this work with the visions and goals of Empower Wealth.

Michael was invited to join the Empower Wealth team in 2009 to head up the Private Client Wealth Services division, to use his passion for analysis and education to work with our clients to help them understand their current financial position, take control of their money and achieve a better financial outcome. He has spent much of the past 12 months developing and refining the software tools that underpin Empower Wealth’s Personal Wealth Management Program, including the data collection Questionnaire and Wealth Projection tools.

Michael holds a Degree in Engineering, a Masters of Business Administration, a Diploma of Financial Services, which meets the requirements ASIC Regulatory Guide 146, and a Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training.

Hobbies / Interests:
When not busy with spreadsheets and financial modelling tools, Michael continues his share trading activities and spends whatever spare time he can bushwalking.

Favourite Book:
The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov

Favourite Movie:
Lord of the Rings trilogy

Favourite Food:
Michael enjoys the five basic food groups - pizza, red wine, chocolate, cheese and coffee.

Michael Savy - Financial Planner
CFP, B.Comm, F Fin

Professional Summary:

Professionally my career unofficially started when, as an 18 year (still with my school bags), I walked into a local stockbroking office and purchased my first parcel of shares. Since then I have been interested in investment markets and what makes them tick ever since.

Since that fateful day I have actively trade stocks (earlier in my career). Through learning from my failures and my success I have developed a strong foundation and investment principles for long-term investing.

These principles were developed through working with some of largest and reputable financial planning business in South Australia and Victoria. After learning as much as I could from these organisations and having developed my own approaches I am glad to have found a company with similar philosophies and values as my own, in Empower Wealth.

My working career has been singularly focused on the financial planning industry and having taken on roles in varying degrees in a number of areas such as technical services, para-planning and strategic planning, and investment services, it is now time to focus solely on my clients.

Hobbies / Interests:

When I am not working I am usually out and about doing something. Unfortunately, I have too many hobbies and not enough time. But when time permits I am either playing squash, tennis or surfing, and if my dodgy right knee is playing up, then I am at the cinema, painting or gallery hopping.

Favourite Book:

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

Favourite Movie:

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (minus Keanu Reeves disgraceful English accent)

Favourite Food:

Pizza

Val Garma – Buyers Advocate

Licensed Real Estate Agent REIV (CEA), REIA, Qualified Auctioneer
Officer in Effective Control for Empower Wealth Property Advisory

I started working in the real estate industry in 1975 in commercial property management in Melbourne’s CBD. At the age of 21 I went into residential property sales in Eltham which led to a long and exciting career with a primary focus in Melbourne’s north eastern suburbs. I have had the pleasure of working with vendors multiple times over and in several circumstances I sold the same houses up to five times over a thirty year period. Inclusive of property sales, I conducted auctions every Saturday. I have personally done over two thousand auctions since becoming a qualified auctioneer and been involved in the sale of over 6000 properties during my career.

The elements of property sales I’ve enjoyed the most have ranged from the excitement of getting a stellar result for my clients, right through to coaching and improving real estate sales people as they embark on their career in this exciting industry. This mentoring role has become my favourite part of the job in recent years and I’ve had the pleasure of being able to stay in touch with my industry contacts and a few of these people have now got their own businesses.

Property Advocacy holds huge appeal for me because it allows me to utilise the years of skills and experience that I have acquired to help other people achieve their goals whilst minimising the stress that many purchasers go through when they embark on property by themselves.

Prior to running my successful business, I was also a sales manager for a team of 21 sales people across three offices and I also auctioned property on “Location Location” and “Hot Property” when I had spare time.

These days I enjoy bidding at auction for clients, conducting appraisals on properties for investors and every now and then I get a chance to exercise my commercial property knowledge.

Investing

My wife, two daughters and I have a wide variety of property investments ranging from residential inner city property in Melbourne, interstate developments, to property in Europe.

Hobbies / Interests

I enjoy golf, football, and cycling. My wife and I love the theatre and we also love music but my passion is reading historical fiction. I am an avid reader! Our granddaughter Ella keeps us busy and we love our time with her.

Favorite Food

All food. I love food! Actually, seafood…. A nice chilli prawn dish… or a paella in Barcelona. “You have gotta have a paella in Barcelona!”

Favorite Music

It’s changed over the years…I am enjoying classical music and I’ve have to say that I enjoy Brahams and Ravel the most right now.

Favorite Book

The last book I read was The Slap – it’s set in Melbourne and is a great read.

Favorite Movie

Gladiator! … and Ben Hur. “There is a pattern here, I know.”

Catherine Bakos – Property Analyst, Buyers Advocate

Bachelor of Science (Chemistry Hons), Certificate IV in Property Services (Real Estate), Certificate IV in Financial Services (Finance /Mortgage Broking), MFAA Member

Having been involved in property investing since the age of 21, it didn’t take me very long to decide that industrial chemistry didn’t excite me nearly as much as Property and People. I pursued a career in sales and marketing and joined a Bayside Real Estate firm as a real estate salesperson; and since having my family I have worked in residential property as a qualified lending consultant. More recently, I have acquired my Certificate IV in Real Estate at Swinburne University.

My passion has always been helping my clients to find the courage and ability to get into property investing. My idea of my dream job is to educate, assist and make property investing a reality for my clients within a supportive team environment.... (not forgetting to mention that I love negotiating?!) I have found the perfect place harness my passion and strengths here at Empower Wealth.

I pride myself on my experience across the various Australian property markets and finance/lending, my ability to ‘keep it real’, and most importantly, my focus on taking the stress out of the journey for my clients.

Outside of work and managing my own property portfolio I love spending time with my family in Aspendale and enjoying my Fridays off with my daughter.

Investing/Finance Experience
My husband and I have a high performing property portfolio ourselves and we always remain clearly focused on real estate investments. From residential investments to commercial property, leveraged self managed superfund investments to interstate property, we manage a diverse and high yielding asset base.

My strength as a lending consultant has been working one-on-one with my clients to enable them to achieve the right finance solution. Every single client requires a lending solution which is specific to them – and this solution takes into account where my clients want their future to take them. My expertise includes understanding loan structuring, bank policy, challenges which first home buyers face, right through to Self Managed Superfund Lending possibilities.

Up to 2010, I have grown my expertise in finance and residential homeloans. My affinity for home buyers and investors led me to mortgage broking so that I could intimately understand budgeting, cashflow, small business, loan serviceability and banking policy. This has held me in good stead on our own personal investing journey.

Hobbies / Interests
Unlike my colleagues here I am pretty rubbish at sport. I play the piano, love to host friends for dinner and I enjoy walking along the beach collecting shells and drawing in the sand with my daughter. Outside of work, if I’m not spending time with my family I am probably on a property search engine.

Favorite Food
My husband makes a great tuna casserole and as simple as it sounds, I just can’t replicate his!

Favorite Music
From Classical to Contemporary. If Neil Finn is playing I’m in heaven.

Favorite Book
Books? No time.

Favorite Movie
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie for myself; it’s generally Disney and Pixar these days. I do love Australian and NZ films though and a recent film I gave five stars to was ‘Boy’; a fantastic NZ production.