High net worth specialist brings global view, local passion to 10X

Johann Werth.

10X Investments’ newest high net worth specialist comes with a killer combination of international experience and a passion for improving the local financial scene.

Johann Werth, a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, has joined 10X after a stint in the Cayman Islands, a major offshore financial centre for international businesses and wealthy individuals.

The University of Johannesburg and Unisa graduate has returned to South Africa with a healthy scepticism for the industry and a drive to demystify finance and open it up widely for South African investors.

“I firmly believe that financial literacy is the key to financial security. Empowering clients to make better financial decisions and educating the South African public in the process is something that really excites me,” says Werth.

Noting that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found South Africa to have very low financials literacy rates, Werth adds: “Finance does not have to be as complicated as the industry portrays it to be. Improving financial literacy will improve lives and, in turn, help transform the South African economy.”

He says that he learnt during his years working in Private Wealth Management Services and Trust Fund Administration in the Caymans, an autonomous British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea, that most, if not all, hedge funds and unit trusts underperform the market.

“These funds usually enrich only the investment managers and the relevant service provides (lawyers, auditors and so on).”

Emma Heap, Chief Growth Officer at 10X, says Werth’s appointment was in response to very strong demand growth in the high net worth space.

Noting his “incredible passion” for index funds, Heap says Werth was inspired to do something to help get better outcomes for South African investors after being horrified at the fees his sister was paying on her retirement annuity.

“A long-term, low-cost, systematic approach to your savings and investment methodology (think indexing) is the most suitable approach for 99% of investors,” says Werth, who is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association . “This has been proved over and over again.”

His ambition is one day to be able to say that he was part of a firm that was responsible for changing your average South African’s view about investing and saving, and making great outcomes accessible to everyone.