When Should You Get A Financial Adviser?
Written by: Jayden Scott l Advisory Team
The question of:
When should I seek the help of a financial adviser?”
Is one that is often misunderstood throughout the wider community and can often overwhelm many people. One common misunderstanding surrounding financial advisers is the belief that financial advisers are exclusively for the affluent, leading people to think “I must have millions of dollars to consult a financial adviser.” Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of understanding among the community on what financial advisers actually do, and how they can provide you with peace of mind that you and your family are well-placed for a strong financial future.
In this blog, I am going to debunk some common misconceptions about obtaining personalised financial advice, showing you that seeking personalised financial advice may be more accessible and beneficial for you right now than you thought.
What Do Financial Advisers Actually Do?
Let’s start off by asking, what do financial advisers actually do?
In summary, a financial adviser’s primary role is to educate and support people to make wiser decisions with their money so that they can live their lives comfortably knowing that their finances are sorted, and their hard-earned cash is being utilised most effectively so that they can live their ideal lifestyle.
Some key areas where a financial adviser can provide advice include, but are not limited to:
- Superannuation and superannuation contributions (including Self-Managed Super Funds);
- Retirement Planning;
- Savings and investments;
- Centrelink matters;
- Aged Care;
- Insurance; and
- Budgeting and cash flow.
You may not require advice on all these areas, so a financial adviser can provide advice on areas that are relevant and leave out areas that aren’t relevant in your situation.
To use an example, you may be 30 years old and have received a redundancy package. In this situation, a key area you would be seeking advice on is savings and investments, and ultimately deciding what to do with the money that you have received. Retirement planning and Centrelink would likely be irrelevant, so this could be scoped out of your advice if you wish to do so, or if the financial adviser recommends so.
Looking At Some Examples…
There are so many other key moments, changes and/or opportunities throughout life where seeking the services of a financial adviser could be life-changing. The situation I talked about above is one example, but there are also so many examples that I could talk about all day. To give you a better idea of some more situations where seeking financial advice could be life-changing, I will give some examples below.
Let’s start with a married couple in their mid-50s who want to start preparing for retirement and would ideally like to be retired by age 60. There is no better time to seek financial advice in the situation to ensure you are really maximising your ability to live the lifestyle you want in retirement, by the age you want to, and ensuring you can maintain this lifestyle for the remainder of your life.
Or, you may be a business owner who is looking at slowing down over the next five to ten years and is looking for advice on how to transition out of your business and into retirement.
Perhaps you are interested in setting up a self-managed superannuation fund and may want to have more control over the investments inside your superannuation.
You may be 70 years old, have already retired and are interested in applying for the Centrelink Age Pension but are unsure of your eligibility and how to actually go through this process. You may also recognise that you currently don’t have enough income to meet your living expenses but, on the other side of the fence, you don’t want to increase your drawdown from super too much and put yourself at risk of outliving your superannuation income. Financial advisers can do high-level analysis and modelling on situations like this and guide you through this stay.
Yet another example, you may be married and have recently had two kids who are starting to go to school. You have started to recognise that you may require insurance such as Life Insurance, Total and Permanent Disablement, Trauma, or Income Protection to help protect your family in the case of unforeseen and unfortunate events occurring. However, you may not know where to start, what types of insurance you need to prioritise, what levels of coverage you need, and the list of questions goes on.
There are an endless number of examples that I can use where seeking financial advice would be beneficial. If you are reading this thinking, “My situation doesn’t sound like any of these above”, I can assure you that there is still a good chance that seeking the services of a financial adviser, no matter what your personal situation looks like, could be life-changing.
Addressing The Cost Associated With Receiving Personal Financial Advice
Now, you may also be thinking “That’s great, but I don’t have millions of dollars so I can’t afford a financial adviser”. But let me tell you, you don’t need millions of dollars to reap the benefits of seeing a financial adviser. In fact, the assets you require in your situation may be significantly lower than what you expect. I will be clear on the fact that you will need a certain level of assets for a financial adviser to provide advice on, and this level of assets differs from person to person, depending on what advice can be provided in your situation. In other words, the financial adviser would have to determine whether the benefits you will accrue from their personal advice outweigh the cost of receiving that advice.
This means that unfortunately in some scenarios, a financial adviser can’t provide a great enough benefit in the present moment to justify the advice fees they would have to charge for personalised advice. Let me assure you though that there is nothing to worry about if this ends up being you. In this instance, a good financial adviser would let you know this and would not proceed with providing personal advice in the form of a Statement of Advice (SoA). They would instead educate you and point you in the right direction as to where you could seek a cost-effective solution to your query and/or needs that isn’t personal advice.
Financial Advisory Services with Canny Advisory
Ultimately, this can sometimes be a case of “you don’t know until you know!” Until you have a discussion with a financial adviser, you may not realise how much benefit you can gain from their services. Our team of financial advisers here at Canny Advisory are specialists in their field and live by the value that the client’s interests are always placed at the highest priority.
If you think you could benefit from the services of a financial adviser or are curious to know more, get in touch with our team today to have a chat and find out more.
