- FAQ : FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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- What value will a Financial Planner provide to me?
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- When you find a financial planner that you are comfortable working with, you’ll discover a committed lifetime partner with a wealth of knowledge and skills who will always put your interests first.
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- A Financial Planner will assist you to develop a comprehensive strategy that will meet your ongoing goals, whilst providing flexibility for circumstantial changes. You can be confident and comfortable with the decisions made, because you will understand all of the alternatives and be certain that as your circumstances change, or changes to the laws are made, we will be proactively helping you along the way.
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We act as a sounding board, provide guidance at each step of life’s journey, celebrate with you, and support you and your family when times get tough. A good Financial Plan has the power to change your life.
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- How much does it cost?
- The cost will vary depending on what your needs are, and will range from a few hundred dollars for specific advice about a single issue, through to several thousand for very complex comprehensive advice.
- We charge on a flat dollar fee for service basis only.
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This means that
- There are no upfront or ongoing commissions associated with any of the recommendations we make – not even on insurance.
If you don’t require our services for a period of time we won’t continue to be paid from your investments or insurances.
You have complete freedom to utilise our services in the form that suits you best
You know exactly how much our services to you will be before we do any work on your behalf
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- If you have existing investments or insurance policies that have commissions attached to them, we will reset those commissions to 0% where possible. Where we may not be able to do this effectively (quite often insurance policies may allow a change of commission to 0% but your premium won’t change) we will take into account the commission we expect to receive when providing you with a quote for our work.
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- Our first appointment is the first step on a hopefully long and valuable journey together, and we both need to be confident that we can work together for the long term. We cover the cost of our first appointment with you and you are under no obligation whatsoever.
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- Are you qualified to assist us?
- There are defined educational standards that all financial planners must meet. We also have qualifications in specialist areas of Taxation, Investments and Superannuation, and Kerrianne is a SMSF Specialist Advisor™.
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- What can we expect?
You can expect:
- That we will want to get to know you
You should expect that we will cover all the key areas that support or impact your overall position, and are likely to request a great deal of information from you. This is worth the time—the more information we have, and the better we know you, the more responsive we can be, and the greater the benefit will be to you
- That we will work with you and provide tailored advice to help you achieve your goals.
We don’t have any ‘standard’ recommendations.
You should expect that the development of your long term strategy may take a few weeks—this is a comprehensive plan designed to provide a road map for the next 10 years or so, and is developed from the ground up for you. We will take into consideration all that you have told us, and will present detailed guidance around how to achieve your goals.
We work with you to agree an overall strategy and this may mean that we consult often until we have it just right
We will assist you to implement your strategy
By now all the hard work is done & all the paperwork is just beginning!
We will make this as seamless as possible—we will gather together everything you need, help you complete the paperwork, and then follow up with everyone involved to ensure it’s completed in a timely manner and as intended.
Ongoing Support
Going forward we proactively assist you to navigate the changes to legislation that occur regularly, and provide regular reports on your entire strategy along with a comprehensive annual review. At each annual review we include a tax assessment that is used to develop a strategy to offset, where possible, the likely tax position for the upcoming year.
It’s not possible to complete a financial strategy without taking into account the likely tax arrangements, however as financial planners we are not licensed tax agents, and always recommend that the advice that we provide and the underpinning tax assumptions, are verified by a licensed tax agent.
We work with all other advisors you may have, such as your accountant and solicitors, to ensure that we are all working towards the same goal, and the advice we provide supports that.
We will keep a record of our relationship
We will maintain a record of your personal profile, which includes your personal information along with a record of any recommendations made to you in the course of taking instructions from you, as well as all documents (such as a Statement of Advice) we may have provided to you.
We will keep our relationship and your information private
We are committed to our privacy policy, which will ensure the privacy and security of your personal information.
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- Are we obligated to use your services?
- Absolutely not. We believe that you control your financial world and we provide advice to assist you with that.
We value our relationship with you, and believe that you will choose to continue working with us without the need for contracts.
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- Do you work with other clients like me?
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- Our clients are diverse in many ways – where they live, what they do for a living, hobbies & interests, and they have issues and needs that range from the very complex to a simple chat once in a while.
- There are a few characteristics that are fairly constant.
- Most of our clients :
- Are aged 50+
Seek a trusted advisor
Are seriously considering what their years out of the permanent workforce will look like.
Will engage with us in developing a comprehensive strategy that will meet their ongoing goals whilst
- providing flexibility for circumstantial changes
Appreciate our work together, and understand that our fees represent a valuable investment
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- As we would rather deliver an exceptional level of service to not only our clients, but also their families, we limit the number of clients we work with, and only work with those individuals for whom we can make a significant contribution.
- Do you have any associations that might impact the advice you can give me?
- Financial Planning Essentials is a privately owned businesses with no associations or affiliations whatsoever with fund managers or other entities that may have an impact on the advice provided to you. The advice you receive is specific to you, and completely autonomous of any third party relationship.
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- Referrals
- We often receive and make referrals to other professional organizations that we trust to look after our clients.
We do not receive, nor pay, a referral fee to our professional partners.
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- Can you work with clients not based in Brisbane?
We can and do. We work with families who are located everywhere from just across the street to just across the globe, and adapt the delivery of our services to suit your unique situation. If you find face to face meetings, phone, email, text or Skype™ conversations convenient, we will hear you.
- Will you work with my accountant?
- Your other professional advisors are very important as we all provide different but complimentary services.
We work with your accountant, solicitor and mortgage broker to ensure that any recommendations we make will support your work with them. By working together we can provide you with a better, more seamless service and save you a great deal of running around.
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- If you need some advice in an area outside our expertise, and don’t currently have an advisor in that area, we can refer you to one of our professional partners for assistance. We offer referrals to our professional partners not because we receive any monetary compensation, but because we believe they have your best interests at heart, and we trust them to look after our clients.
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