Welcome to CapitalQ Business Advisers & Chartered Accountants Perth.

Providing tax, business and wealth services and advice by highly qualified highly experienced tax experts in their field who have an unrivalled track record of looking after their Clients’ best interests.

For more than 15 years business owners and investors who want to…

• Pay the absolute MINIMUM tax legally possible
• Ensure their business and investment affairs are structured the RIGHT way
• Who want to build genuine, lasting wealth
• And who want to save time with the best accounting and internal systems

… have sought the services of the Team at CapitalQ.

Hi, my name is Duncan Melbin and I’m the proud Founder of CapitalQ and I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you a little about myself and why we operate the way we do because I believe it’s important in business to know who you’re dealing with.

Let’s get the “boring” (but important) stuff out of the way first…

My Credentials

• Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Accounting and Finance and minoring in Business Law) from the University of Western Australia
• Chartered Accountant (“CA”) and have been a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand for over 17 years
• Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning including being awarded the Colonial First State Prize as First Placed Student
• Chartered Tax Advisor (“CTA”) and member of The Tax Institute Member of the National Tax & Accountants Association (“NTAA”)
• Certificate IV in Financial Services (Finance/Mortgage Broking) Registered Tax Agent
• The CapitalQ Team includes –
  • Chartered Accountants
  • Certified Practising Accountants (“CPAs”)
  • Registered Self-Managed Superannuation Fund Auditors
  • ASIC Registered SMSF Advisers
• CapitalQ is a –
  • Member of Property Investment Professionals of Australia (“PIPA”)
  • Registered Tax Agent
  • Registered Australian Securities and Investment Commission Agent
  • CapitalQ SMSF Specialists is an Australian Financial Services License holder

Yes, it’s fair to say, we know what we’re doing

But that’s only part of the CapitalQ story because ours and mine is something of a rags to riches adventure. If you come from humble beginnings and have worked your butt off to get where you are today, I can relate.

Here’s why…

Let’s start in my first year of high school. I vividly remember receiving a thin faux wool jumper that came free with a pair of jeans Mum bought me for school. That jumper ended up being the only thing I had to keep me warm at school for the next four winters. By year 11, it was threadbare, and it left me completely miserable on cold days.

Now I don’t tell you this wanting pity, far from it. There were and are plenty who have done it much tougher. But regardless, I decided one of those cold early mornings at school, waiting for the warm classroom to open, that I would not be living my life like Mum and Dad did.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my parents dearly and have a deep respect for them to this day (I even employ Dad to help keep him out of mischief in his retirement years!).

However, I watched how hard he worked, the stresses he had to endure, and all the time he was working for someone else, with absolutely no upside for him. He never had the money or flexibility to take real time off. Never had the ability to travel. Never had the resources to buy the things his family wanted, let alone himself. Mum and Dad had to count every penny and lived for years from pay cheque to pay cheque.

I didn’t want a life like that. So I made a decision.

Maybe you can relate… at least in a business sense… if things are not what you want them to be right now, change starts with a decision.

Here’s a snapshot of what happened after “my decision”…

• Studied Commerce at University (hey, what else do you study if you want to go into business, and I specialised in Accounting and Finance because I knew it was the backbone of all businesses)
• I’d always done well at school (eg was selected to join the Academic Extension Program (“AEP”) out of primary school placing me in the top 2% of students in WA) and this continued into university which gave me early opportunities at two of the world wide “Big 4” accounting firms (Deloittes, PwC, Ernst & Young, KPMG) and working for them was a great experience (though I actually learned from this that “big” corporate business was not for me)
• While still in my final year at University, I secured my first full-time accounting job in a second tier, national firm, where I worked on local small and medium enterprises
• Worked super hard those early years (nothing’s changed!!) starting work each day at 6am (well maybe the start times have changed) and making sure I had hit my targets and responsibilities by lunch time (I spent the rest of the day focusing on improving and broadening my skills and knowledge).
• Doing this made me more valuable to both my employer and especially my Clients and the knowledge I gained still serves me to this day.
• Started my Professional Studies on the very day I qualified to do so – of the five modules, I won two Merits (top 5% of candidates nationwide) and one Candidate of the State Award (in none other than “Business Advisory”). I completed my Professional Studies in the shortest time possible without a single “hiccup” (one of the few Accountants in my Firm to do so), was then head-hunted by the big firms and offered a sign on bonus, rare for someone still so junior.
• My new role allowed me to invest substantial time and energy into one particular Client… and my entrepreneurial journey began when I offered the Client to engage my services directly, taking out the middleman of my Big Accounting Firm… they jumped at the chance!

This turned out to be a turning point for me because the client was in the financial services industry, providing a Superannuation Fund with investment flexibility (relatively new at the time), an Investment Fund and specialist Self-Managed Superannuation Fund services – their products expanded my skills and knowledge in relation to investing and superannuation greatly.

• Bitten by the travel bug my partner and I left for Europe and I furthered my skills and experience undertaking consulting roles in General Insurance, Life Insurance, Investment Funds and even Aviation Risk (I worked on the insurance claims for the 2001, 9/11 World Trade Centre Terrorist event).
• Back home 3 years later my next roles were as a Succession Planning and Estate Planning Consultant, assisting Clients with managing and planning for changes in their business ownership (ie. Buy-outs, Mergers, Partnership dissolutions, etc), passing their businesses onto the next generation and/or the next owners, and of course planning for their Families Futures in the event of their demise.

As you can see it was quite an apprenticeship and it has served me well! And now serves our Clients well also.

The next step for me was to join with a University friend to start our own business. It didn’t last long but the whole starting-running-dissolving sequence was an invaluable experience that has served me well.

Now we…

• Operate lean with a focused and committed team of 10 and own our Office.
• Enjoy consistent year on year growth.
• Have an enviable reputation for innovation and are very early adopters of technological advances in the industry.
• Can confidently say we offer a superior product and service as our Clients readily attest to.

I’ve also recently expanded my business interests beyond CapitalQ.

• I’m a Co-Founder of a hugely successful business offering a new concept in the Child Care and Early Years Learning space.
• And being a keen photographer (many images on this site are my own) and an even keener traveller, I have also recently launched a new online venture in the luxury travel space.

As you can see, I’m not, and nor is CapitalQ, like a traditional accounting firm. We live and breathe business in all its facets.

Of further interest to many clients…

• Early in its existence, CapitalQ was called upon to help pick up the pieces of one of the biggest corporate collapses in WA in recent memory in preference to the large St George’s Terrace firms
• We have been engaged as an independent “overseer” of a substantial client’s existing Accountants’ work (those Accountants being one of the Big Four firms). It was our job, to make sure the Big Firm were getting things right!
• I have personally engaged the services and guidance of business advisors, coaches and individuals providing a mentoring role. This has not only helped me take my own businesses and wealth building to the next level but also taught me the true value of an experienced advisor, who has done the things I want to do and achieved the things I want to achieve.
• Undertaken extensive personal investments including residential rental properties, residential property developments, commercial property investment, commercial property development, direct shares including the full gambit of blue chip, mid-caps, start-ups, seed capital, pre-IPOs and IPOs, managed funds and private lending
• From day one I have worked super hard to set up the business so it worked FOR me – I was NEVER a slave to it… thus I take time off regularly to travel and encourage staff to do the same (I travel roughly 10-12 weeks every year with a trip every 10 to 11 weeks of work!). My partner and I have visited 83 countries (and counting) since we began our travel together in 1998. (I feel this is what a successful business should look like and is the type of flexible lifestyle we will work to help you achieve.)
• I have always been a reader when it comes to professional, business and investing matters, and continue to this day to always have a pile of books by my bed… plus… I frequent seminars and conferences as often as I can, all over the world, it is amazing just how much there is to learn from such events, even when you think you know it all or you are sceptical about the time (and cost) investment required.
• Another key point is I like to surround myself with successful business people, I actively seek them out because I firmly believe you are and you become the people you associate with, and I want to associate with those who share the same goals as myself, who have achieved the things I want to achieve.

And the thing is, I tend to attract clients who are like-minded and want success like I and the CapitalQ Team do.

I absolutely love owning my own business and love that it helps others run their own successful businesses and helps them build the wealth and lifestyle they desire.

I know my Team feel the same way about the roles they get to play for their Clients and for our business.

I know how lucky I am to have them. Having said that, I have invested a huge amount of time and money choosing the RIGHT people, then training them, developing them, dealing with the times they fell short, assisting them when their lives were not going as well as they wanted, and ultimately earning their respect and their dedication to both CapitalQ and to our many Clients.

There you have it, an overview of me and the people behind CapitalQ and an understanding of what makes us tick.