Currently less than 15% of all Australian’s receive financial advice. Now this wouldn’t be as concerning for me if most people didn’t have a relationship with money and a superannuation account.
Research found that people who seek the advice of a financial planner are better off by an average of $2,457 each year, compared to a similar individual who does not have a financial planner or adviser.
So what does a financial planner do to add value to your situation you may ask?
Step 1: Where are you at?
This stage is the information gathering stage which is important for both parties to get an understanding of where you currently are with regards to the resources you can use towards your financial management. This can include your income, assets and also has a lot to do with your habits and attitudes that currently come into play with your money.
Step 2: Where do you want to be?
This can sometimes be the hardest part of the process as this is the goal setting phase and involves putting your dreams, hopes and thoughts for the future into tangible outcomes.
This is a stage that can be different depending on the planning firm and their approach. We use a values based approach which is linked to the most important person in the process. YOU! How do you want to be, feel, do in your life? What are the things that are important to you and why? Who are the important people in your life?
Step 3: Your strategy development
This is where the training and knowledge of the financial planner comes into play and should also include collaboration with your other professional advisers. This collaboration will ensure that other strategies and structures you have in place will work together to achieve your outcomes. This area could include your cash flow, superannuation, wealth creation and back up plans. Each of these areas has different strategy solutions which may be suitable for you depending on your comfort and level of willingness to be involved in the day-to-day process.
Step 4: Review of your Strategy and situation
For each area of strategy development there will be a financial product solution which will help to achieve your goals. This could depending on the advice be a managed investment, or direct investment product which is based around debt based investments such as cash, term deposits or government or corporate debt or equity based investments such as property and shares which could be local or internationally based.
As with all planning and strategy development it is important to regularly review your strategy to ensure it is continuing to meet your needs and to check in to see if any of your goals or plans have changed.
If you have a money or financial question and you want to talk to someone or get a second opinion about something we are only an email or phone call away!