Our Process
Meeting with You
Initially, we’ll meet with you to identify how we can assist you, and whether we can work together to help you achieve your objectives. Once this is established, we’ll need to find out all about you. This involves plenty of discussion and collecting information about you in a range of areas. Having established the framework of your requirements, including your needs, objectives, and financial situation, we will then conduct our analysis. A document known as a Statement of Advice (“SoA”), outlining our recommendations will be provided to you. This will contain the advice and its basis, as well as information about how we will be remunerated and if there are any associations which may have influenced the provision of the advice.
If further advice is furnished, we may record the advice instead of providing a SoA. You can ask us for a copy of the Record of Advice (RoA). Where we recommend that you acquire a financial product (other than securities), we will provide you with a Product Disclosure Statement containing information about the particular product which will enable you to make an informed decision in relation to its acquisition.
We only give advice and recommend a financial product to you after considering its suitability for your individual needs, objectives and financial situation. The products we recommend are selected from our approved list and they have been researched by external experts, as well as our internal area.
We will explain to you any significant risks of investments and strategies we recommend to you.
Implementation
After you have reviewed our advice and had all your questions answered, you then instruct us to implement the advice, either in part or in full. We then proceed with applications with the selected product provider(s), and liaise through to full implementation.
Paying for the Service
Financial Planning involves a great deal of expertise and experience, and our role is to simplify the entire process and ensure your financial affairs are structured for your long-term financial security. Our fees are based upon the time and value we provide in assisting you with this.
We usually do not charge a fee when we initially meet, unless you require an immediate service.
Our consulting fees are based on the type, the level and time involved in undertaking the work for you. We discuss this with you and obtain your agreement prior to commencement of any work.
We are flexible in the way the fee can be paid. It can be paid as a direct fee from you, as a fee taken from invested funds (flat dollar or percentage) or a combination.
Where we arrange personal insurance for you, we will receive a commission from the insurance provider, not you. This is cost effective for you and allows us to be remunerated for the work.
Ongoing Support
We offer ongoing support, and this is designed with the overall objective of keeping you on track, ensuring you are informed, providing peace of mind and enhancing your general awareness.
Our ongoing support includes adviser access, portfolio management, administrative and general enquiry service. We oversee your ongoing strategy, provide regular newsletters and updates.
We will discuss this with you during the advice process and a fee for the service agreed upon prior to any implementation.
Other Things You Should Know
We look at your investments and strategy on an ongoing basis in relation to your circumstances, however, we are not in a position to constantly do this. It is therefore important for you to keep us abreast of your situation, especially if your personal circumstances change significantly as this may affect the strategy going forward.
A check-up should be done periodically. The frequency will depend on the likelihood of a change in circumstances, the complexity of your financial plan and your preference. We proactively remind you about this through our regular correspondence and updates, however, you must contact us to discuss any issues or to organise a time to see us if it is required. We may charge a fee for this service. This will depend on the nature, complexity and time involved. Where a fee is to be charged, this will be discussed and agreed with you before any work is carried out.
Refer to our Financial Services Guide for more information.