Financial Bargain?

LFlash on 10/06/2009 - 12:28

Hi OzBargainers - great site you've stumbled across! I've been a member for well over a year now. Would love to try and give some back to everyone that adds to the site.

I work in a small financial advisory business operating on a mobile basis throughout Melbourne and Victoria. My focus is working with community groups and the smaller families and small business owners who often find it hard to find good advice with little money to spend.

I'd like to know WHAT OZBARGAIN OFFERS WOULD APPEAL TO YOU that I could offer? I give advice on numerous issues such as how to save tax, how to save money on your mortgage, which super is most appropriate, which investment options are most appropriate, insurance quotes and advice on how much is appropriate etc. etc.

Despite the fact I give FREE appointments across the city of Melbourne and beyond (often including late night and early morning for all the shift workers!) - I don't believe this is technically a bargain as there are other professionals who may also do this for you. Advice fees and commissions, however, range from adviser to adviser. Therefore if anyone has any feedback on what they consider to be a bargain, please let me know!

Introduce Yourself

Comments

  • neil on 10/06/2009 - 13:04

    Welcome.

    Do you mean you want to know what offers you can supply: Like 50% off Flash's fee

    or do you mean, you want people to post questions here and you answer them like How do I pick a good super fund?

    The latter sounds good.

  • Flash on 10/06/2009 - 13:17

    Thanks for your reply Neil. I'd be happy to do either, although financial planner's are guided by strict rules about giving advice. So if you have any general questions by all means I'm happy to help!

  • JamesG on 13/06/2009 - 22:38

    Flash,

    As a fellow Financial Adviser I'd just to make the point that the value of financial advice lays in its ability to empower people to make good financial decisions. People generally have future goals they wish to achieve – settle down and buy a house, have kids and see them through financially to adulthood, retire in x years on x dollars and so on. Our role is to sit down with our clients, find out what is important to them both now and into the future, and recommend the optimum plan with structured, clear and measurable goals for them to work towards.

    Holding ourselves out as having the secrets on areas such as saving tax or picking the most appropriate super fund doesn’t work as people are smarter than that. Most people are aware of strategies such as tax deductible debt and salary sacrificing as legitimate ways to save tax and most people have default employer Super accounts that may be quite appropriate for them.

    Valuable advice is about providing a financial plan that defines what is important, then with these important things and time frames set, go on and recommend a holistic plan with interlinking strategies on investment planning, Tax, Super, debt, insurance, cash flow, estate planning, budgeting etc. And don’t end the relationship there, work with clients and keep them accountable for their progress towards their goals and advise them as things change.

    But anyway, good luck with your future bargains but caveat emptor, you get what you pay for in financial planning.

    And as an unashamed self promotion, happy to assist Ozbargainers with their financial planning needs. I am a Certified Financial Planner and work for a Sydney based fee for service advisory firm.

    [email protected]

  • Flash on 31/08/2009 - 18:40
    +1

    I guess it depends what type of demographic your clients come from James. If you practice in Sydney and your fees allow only for middle to high class families then you're going to be working with well educated people with spare cash to pay for the services of a planner. There's not too many Mr & Mrs Joe Averages that I meet that know how to set up a TTR or how agri-business works. Often they don't know about spouse contributions or government co-contributions.

    It's such a cop-out the old 'you get what you pay for'. Do you seriously believe that one planner who charges half the amount for a mortgage reduction strategy than another adviser is going to come out with a result that is half as good as another?

    There are some of us out there who will actually take the time to work with those clients who are worse off and make some real difference in their lives. If you're a firm that charges all clients on a fee for service basis, maybe you'd like to explain how you service clients in this situation?

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