What exactly does a financial adviser do?

One of the main reasons that most ordinary Australians don’t approach a financial adviser to assist them is that they don’t know what we do.

Well I’m about to tell you what we can do for you.
Lets start by saying that we want to work with you to help you create and protect the lifestyle you want, whether that is now or in 15 years time.
At your first meeting with any good financial adviser will build rapport getting to know you and what you would like to achieve. This meeting is all about determining whether I can help you, and because most financial journey are a long plans we need to be able to get along. We are your financial partners after all.

During this meeting we will discuss some /all of the following depending on what stage in life and what you want to seek advice on;
• Your future goals and objectives are discussed
• Your existing super and investments
• Your existing personal insurances
• Your existing wills or Estate plans along with the relationships and health of your children/grandchildren and parents
• Your cashflow and employment situation
• Your existing debts
• We explain the financial planning process, and some of the reasons why we prepare a statement of advice ( SOA) which needs to be presented to you before we can implement anything that we recommend.
• Our initial and ongoing fees

Build a future with a financial adviser

After the first meeting with a financial adviser you decide whether you want to build your financial future with us. If you do then it’s onto the 2nd meeting…….. this is where we delve a little deeper into your situation to collect as many facts about your current personal and financial position, as well as outlining your future goals and objectives in detail.

Some of this information I might have already gathered at the initial meeting or I might have given you some homework to gather for this meeting such as; completion of a household budget or thinking about those big ticket items you want to spend money on such as house reno’s, car upgrades, kids education or that overseas holidays.

We then go away and gather all the information from external sources. We sit down and discuss the some of the strategy options we could use to help you achieve those future goals and objectives. This will also require us to research different products and possibly obtain insurance quotes. During this process we may also need to speak with you again to clarify or discuss some new information that we have become aware of.

Then we commence the process of preparing the Statement of Advice (SOA).
First we enter all the information you have provided us with into our specialised software. This enables us to determine the best outcome for you as we are able to compare all the strategies/options we are considering for you. With this software we can look at the effect these strategies will have on over your financial lives (for 25-30 years), including cashflow, taxation, super and investment balances and Centrelink benefits.
The next stage involves us preparing the SOA for presentation
The 3rd Meeting with you is generally to present the SOA which outlines
• Our recommendations
• Any other strategies we may have considered and why we didn’t use them
• How these strategies will help you achieve your stated goals
• Our fees and the fees of any products we have recommended

At the conclusion of this meeting you can either agree to proceed with our recommendations or take the document home to read over. Our recommendations aren’t acted upon until you have signed the appropriate “authority to proceed”.

It’s now that we assist you in completing any required applications and putting those recommendations into place. It’s at this time something happens.
You’ve created a better financial future for you and your family. That’s about all you need to do, we will look after your applications from here.

We submit all your paperwork required, we follow up your applications with the product providers and make sure they are actioned correctly. We have no time-frame on how long this will take to be completed but you can rest assured that during this process we will keep you informed along the way providing you with updates on things such as; the stage of your applications, ensuring your super fund rollovers are processed and quickly, if money has been received or expected to be deducted, if and when you should expect to receive payment from any income product, if an insurance application has been accepted or if you are required to do any medical tests.

The office staff are as equally important to the whole SOA process as the financial planner. They have strong relationships with companies through the industry, they assist with the implement your recommended changes being done the right way and with you doing as little as possible. Yes, that is right, as little as possible.

How often will you be in touch with your financial adviser?

The next contact with me, your Financial Adviser will usually be at your first review usually 6 or 12 months after we have presented the SOA. This review process will continue with your approval and consent to any fees.

We have now started our long term relationship. This will require commitment from both you and us. Your commitment is to stay true to the long term goals and agree to meet with us on a regular basis. We will commit to work hard for you doing all of those financial calculations most people find tedious (we don’t, it’s what we do), dealing with all the different product providers and translating all of that financial jargon into simple terms that you can easily understand.

We maintain up to date with product, legislative and strategy changes by meeting ongoing industry education requirements.
While it is important to set up our recommendations correctly it is just as important that we continue to meet and review the investment/ superannuation and insurances you have. Reviews will take into account any changes to your personal and financial position, changes to your original goals and objectives, changes to any government laws and/or legislation and last but not least the current state of the global financial and geopolitical situation.

There you have it………and you thought we only looked after life insurance.

Give us a call for a free initial consultation and let us take some of the weight off your shoulders as you negotiate your way through life. Remember, what most people find time consuming, tedious and annoying we do every day, all day. So let an experienced financial adviser discuss what we can do for you.