Do you replace my private bank?

Not necessarily — we frequently negotiate alongside an existing private banking relationship, using genuine alternatives to improve its terms, or structure specific facilities away from it where another desk prices your asset class better. Independence means the answer follows the numbers, and sometimes the numbers say your private bank is right.

What loan sizes does the private client practice handle?

There's no formal threshold — the practice is defined by complexity and service expectations rather than a number. As a guide, the dynamics on this page (valuation strategy, exposure tiers, desk-level negotiation) become decisive on facilities from roughly seven figures upward, and that's where most of this work sits.

How do lenders assess income from trusts and companies?

Very differently by desk: retail credit often reads only personal returns, while private and commercial desks assess consolidated positions — distributions, retained profits, addbacks and asset income. Presenting the group the way those desks read it is core to what we do, working directly with your accountant.

Can lending be secured against investments rather than property?

Asset-backed and securities-based lending exists through private banks and specialist funders, typically for bridging, liquidity or acquisition purposes. It's specialised territory with margin-call mechanics that deserve sober modelling — we arrange it where it genuinely fits, always with your investment adviser in the loop.

Do you work with family offices directly?

Yes — usually as the credit specialist alongside the family's existing advisers. We handle lender selection, negotiation and execution across the family's entities; your accountants and lawyers keep ownership of tax, structure and estate advice. Clean lanes, one coordinated outcome.

Are professional-package benefits (medico, legal) real?

Yes — selected lenders offer profession-specific policies including LMI waivers at up to 90–95% LVR and preferential assessment for medical, dental, legal, accounting and some executive professions. Eligibility lists and terms shift; we track them and apply whichever genuinely improves your position.

How is a first conversation handled?

Directly with a director, in confidence, at our office or yours — or by video. No file is opened, nothing is lodged, and no credit check occurs until we've agreed a strategy together. Bring the picture; we'll bring an honest read of it.

Private Client Lending Melbourne — Prestige Property, Complex Wealth, Discreet Advice

For clients whose lending belongs in a private bank — but who want an adviser on their side of the table rather than an institution's. Integrated Finance Group's private client practice arranges prestige home loans, portfolio and entity lending, and the structured facilities behind substantial private wealth. Directors Brian Hermosilla and Frank Marin — former business bankers, 45+ years combined — run every private client file personally, with the discretion, speed and structural rigour this work demands.

Who this practice serves

Prestige home buyers — seven and eight-figure purchases in Melbourne's premium suburbs, where valuation strategy, negotiated pricing and settlement certainty decide outcomes.
Business owners and professionals with complex wealth — income across companies and trusts, retained profits, distributions and dividends that standard retail credit assessment reads badly and private-style assessment reads properly.
Established investors and self-funded retirees — asset-rich positions where lending should be assessed on the whole balance sheet, including lombard-style and asset-backed thinking, not a payslip test.
Family offices and their advisers — we work alongside accountants, lawyers and investment advisers as the credit specialist in the room: structuring debt across entities, negotiating with lenders' private and commercial desks, and executing quietly.
Medical, legal and executive professionals — profession-specific lending policies (including LMI waivers and higher LVRs at selected lenders) that most borrowers never hear about because their broker doesn't work this segment.

Private banking’s service — without its single-institution limit

Private banks do many things well: dedicated bankers, bespoke credit assessment, pricing by relationship rather than rate card. Their structural weakness is built in — a private banker can only ever offer one institution's credit appetite, and that appetite moves with the bank's own portfolio position, not with your interests. When your private bank tightens on your asset class, your "relationship" reprices with it.

Our practice works the same segment from the opposite side. We deal with the private and premium desks of the major banks, non-bank lenders with genuine high-net-worth programs, and specialist funders — and we negotiate them against each other on your behalf. The service model is private banking's: one senior point of contact, whole-of-position thinking, transactions handled discreetly and fast. The independence is a broker's, with the Best Interests Duty behind it.

Both directors built their careers inside institutional banking. We know how relationship pricing is actually set, what exceptions credit committees will genuinely entertain, and how to package a complex private balance sheet so it's read the way it deserves. That's the practical meaning of "former business bankers" — we've sat where the decision gets made.

Prestige property finance — where high-value deals are won

Above a certain price point, lending stops being about qualification and starts being about execution. The issues that decide seven-figure purchases:

Valuation strategy. Prestige properties have thin, idiosyncratic comparables — two valuers can differ by seven figures on the same home. Lender selection determines valuer panels; instructions and timing shape outcomes. We manage this as a deliberate step, never a default.
Exposure limits and pricing tiers. Every lender has loan-size thresholds where policy, pricing and approval authority change. Structuring a facility just under the right threshold — or splitting across lenders — routinely saves meaningful margin.
Income presentation. Substantial buyers rarely have simple payslips. Distributions, retained earnings, bonus histories, investment income and asset-backed servicing all need presenting to the desk that understands them — retail credit queues do not.
Settlement certainty and speed. Premium vendors and their agents weight certainty heavily. A buyer whose finance is structured, evidenced and pre-negotiated bids differently — and is treated differently.
Structure and privacy. Which entity buys, what security is offered, how titles are held — decisions with estate, asset-protection and privacy consequences that deserve coordination with your legal and tax advisers before contract, not after. We run that coordination.

We work these purchases across Melbourne's prestige markets — from Williamstown and the inner north's premium streets to bayside, the inner east and the Mornington Peninsula — and for clients acquiring interstate.

Beyond the home: the full private balance sheet

Private client lending rarely stops at a residence. The same discipline extends across the position:

Portfolio and investment lending — multi-property facilities structured to preserve capacity and avoid cross-collateralisation, with each asset able to move independently.
Commercial property — premises, investment assets and SMSF commercial structures integrated with the personal position rather than bolted onto it.
Development ventures — funding structures for clients whose wealth includes property projects, with the sponsor position presented institutionally.
Liquidity and bridging — short-term facilities against strong assets for opportunities that won't wait: the auction before the sale, the acquisition before the liquidity event. Always with a modelled exit.
Succession-aware structuring — debt arranged with one eye on the next generation, coordinated with your estate and tax advisers. We arrange credit; your advisers own the tax and estate advice — and we work to their plan.

What actually changes at the top of the market

High-value lending runs on different mechanics, and knowing them is most of the advantage:

Pricing is negotiated, not published. Above lender thresholds, rates come from pricing desks with discretion — the margin depends on how the position is presented and what genuine alternatives sit on the table. Walking in with one application gets rack rates; walking in represented gets a negotiation.
Structure outperforms rate. On a large facility, offset architecture, split design and interest-only sequencing move more dollars over a decade than the basis points everyone haggles over. We design the structure first and let lenders compete on the rest.
Multi-lender splits are a feature, not a compromise. Spreading a large position across two desks can beat any single lender's best offer — and it removes the concentration risk of one institution's changing appetite owning your whole balance sheet.
Interest-rate risk deserves adult treatment. Fixed tranches, caps and staggered expiries are hedging decisions on facilities this size. We model scenarios rather than opinions, and structure expiries so no single repricing date can ambush the position.
Annual reviews are leverage events. Large facilities get reviewed whether you attend or not. Attending with alternatives — every year, as a standing discipline — is how relationship pricing stays honest for the life of the debt.

How the private client engagement works

1. A confidential position review. Directors only. The full balance sheet, the entities, the existing facilities, the intentions — understood before anything is recommended.
2. Strategy paper, not product list. A written view of how your lending should be structured: which facilities, which entities, which lenders' desks, in what sequence — and what it should cost.
3. Negotiated placement. We take the position to the private and premium desks whose appetite fits, and negotiate — pricing, covenants, valuation approach, exceptions. Competition is quiet but real.
4. Coordinated execution. One point of contact for your solicitor, accountant and family office through to settlement. Documents move to your calendar, not the lender's queue.
5. Standing review. Private balance sheets change — liquidity events, acquisitions, generational steps. Facilities are reviewed on a standing cadence we initiate, so the structure keeps fitting the life.

Discretion, stated plainly

Private client work runs on confidentiality. Files are handled only by the directors; we don't discuss clients, publish case studies with identifying detail, or trade on names. References are available in both directions — ours, and the accountants and lawyers we work alongside — because in this segment, the professional network is the reputation. If we're not the right fit for a scenario, we'll say so in the first meeting and, where useful, point you to who is.

Private Client Lending — Frequently Asked Questions

Do you replace my private bank?: Not necessarily — we frequently negotiate alongside an existing private banking relationship, using genuine alternatives to improve its terms, or structure specific facilities away from it where another desk prices your asset class better. Independence means the answer follows the numbers, and sometimes the numbers say your private bank is right.
What loan sizes does the private client practice handle?: There's no formal threshold — the practice is defined by complexity and service expectations rather than a number. As a guide, the dynamics on this page (valuation strategy, exposure tiers, desk-level negotiation) become decisive on facilities from roughly seven figures upward, and that's where most of this work sits.
How do lenders assess income from trusts and companies?: Very differently by desk: retail credit often reads only personal returns, while private and commercial desks assess consolidated positions — distributions, retained profits, addbacks and asset income. Presenting the group the way those desks read it is core to what we do, working directly with your accountant.
Can lending be secured against investments rather than property?: Asset-backed and securities-based lending exists through private banks and specialist funders, typically for bridging, liquidity or acquisition purposes. It's specialised territory with margin-call mechanics that deserve sober modelling — we arrange it where it genuinely fits, always with your investment adviser in the loop.
Do you work with family offices directly?: Yes — usually as the credit specialist alongside the family's existing advisers. We handle lender selection, negotiation and execution across the family's entities; your accountants and lawyers keep ownership of tax, structure and estate advice. Clean lanes, one coordinated outcome.
Are professional-package benefits (medico, legal) real?: Yes — selected lenders offer profession-specific policies including LMI waivers at up to 90–95% LVR and preferential assessment for medical, dental, legal, accounting and some executive professions. Eligibility lists and terms shift; we track them and apply whichever genuinely improves your position.
How is a first conversation handled?: Directly with a director, in confidence, at our office or yours — or by video. No file is opened, nothing is lodged, and no credit check occurs until we've agreed a strategy together. Bring the picture; we'll bring an honest read of it.

A confidential conversation, director to principal

Tell us the position and the intention. We'll tell you how it should be structured, who should fund it, and what it should cost.

Request a Confidential Consultation or call 0401 333 636 (Brian) · 0413 032 898 (Frank)

Reviewed by Brian Hermosilla, Director — 20+ years in banking & finance · Credit Representative 485802 · MFAA Member #716100. IFG provides credit assistance and is not a private bank; taxation, legal, estate and investment advice remain with your appointed advisers. General information only; your full position will be assessed before any recommendation.