Financial advice is about identifying your financial goals, understanding your own situation, and then developing and executing a detailed plan for you to achieve your goals. Goals come in short, medium and long-term time frames and different strategies are used in a financial plan to achieve each one. 

A financial adviser is a qualified professional who works with you to understand your circumstances and create a plan for achieving your goals. They have experience in helping people work through the various parts of their life, simplifying and improving their financial situation as well as their financial well-being. 

There are many responsibilities, opportunities, and areas to navigate across our lives. Financial advice combines several complex areas to: 

• Provide tailored and expert advice to your particular situation. 
• Remove the stress and anxiety we feel with all the information and decisions. 
• Provide an objective perspective. 
• Enhance your financial knowledge. 
• Proactively manage your developed strategies over time 

From the research that assesses the value of advice it is “estimated that those who obtain advice accumulate more than three times more assets after 15 years than those who make their own decisions, (including doing nothing)”.

Additional research by Morningstar in 2019 concluded that “there are significant potential benefits from working with a financial advisor”.

Vanguard further conducted its own independent research in 2016 in the US which found that financial advisers could add a potential 3% increase in net returns through helpings clients devise and stick to a financial plan, by managing their asset allocation, sourcing cost efficient investment tools, along with a number of other strategies.

More recently Russell Investment completed their 2021 Value Of An Adviser Study where they found the monetary value of an adviser was around 4.83% per year!

• Do you have a plan in place for each financial aspect of your life? 
• Do you have the technical knowledge to maintain and update your plan? 

• Do you feel overwhelmed or unsure if you are making the right decisions? 
• Do you have time to create and manage a plan? 
• Do you want an objective perspective on your situation? 

There are so many different decisions to make throughout life and choosing the wrong option can make a big difference over time. If you find yourself asking any of the above questions, then we would suggest speaking to a financial adviser. 

A Financial Adviser can help in the following areas: 

• Investment & Wealth Creation – Help build your wealth in line with your goals and timeframes, in a diversified and considered manner. 
• Superannuation – Making the most of your super during your working life so you can retire comfortably. 
• Retirement Planning – Building a retirement plan so that you can live stress free and enjoy your retirement. 
• Insurance and Risk Management – Planning for the unexpected means that should something go wrong, your finances don’t go backwards. 

• Cashflow Management – Managing your cash flow to best use your surplus income in a tax effective manner. 
• Estate Planning – To help you protect and control the distribution of your assets so they can be passed down to your intended beneficiaries, in a systematic and tax effective manner. 
• Structural Advice – Incorporating structures such as trusts and companies for long term asset protection and management of wealth. 
• Intergenerational Wealth – Creating a plan for the children and grandchildren to responsibly manage and transition your life’s hard work. 

We also provide mortgage broking services including helping you find the right finance option when you look to buy a property or refinance. 

There are a few qualifications and standards that an adviser must meet before they are able to provide financial advice. 

1. They need to be listed on the financial advisers register handled by ASIC (available through their website). 
2. They must have completed an approved degree which is a bachelor’s degree or higher. 
3. Existing advisers will have until January 2024 to complete the above education requirements. 
4. Both new and existing financial advisers must pass the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) Exam 

The financial adviser must operate under an Australian Financial Services Licence provided by ASIC. 

At the first meeting, the adviser will work to understand your goals, your timeframes, your expectations, as well as address areas or concerns you were not aware were impacting your situation.  With your permission an adviser will collect your information and have an informed view on all the above. They will answer any questions you may have such as what services might be included, what the advice will cost, how are they remunerated, what time frame can it be completed in. 

An adviser will then use all the information provided in the first meeting to conduct research including assessing appropriate strategies, modelling various alternatives, reviewing different product options, with the aim of putting a formal plan together to be presented in a separate meeting together. 

We work with you to understand your situation so that the advice cost is relevant to the work completed for your situation. Our first meeting is obligation free; we provide you the advice cost after we have been able to understand your situation in that first meeting, that way you understand what you are paying for and there are no unexpected costs.