By: ANTHONY KEANE<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
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$\"eb5e9df00d35b6c8833d00785cca34ca\"$ <\/a>PAYING thousands of dollars to a financial planner for advice you never knew you needed is nobody\u2019s favourite way to spend money.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However, good financial advice can be extremely valuable \u2014 earning and saving you tens of thousands of dollars over several years, and is more affordable than you think.<\/p>\n
As a rough guide, planners charge about $2000 for a full financial plan, but the same advice might vary between $1000 and $5000 depending on the planner, so shop around.<\/p>\n
Know what you want. If you are stressed by debt worries, a free financial counsellor is best and can be found through Financial Counselling Australia on 1800 007 007.<\/p>\n
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY<\/b><\/p>\n
Financial planners mainly work with wealth strategies, superannuation, personal insurance and investment.<\/p>\n
The initial meeting is usually free of charge so try out two or three to see who you like. Your bank or credit union can be a starting point but there are other avenues.<\/p>\n
RSM Australia associate financial planner Carl Freshwater says second opinions are vital. \u201cIt is important to obtain multiple opinions from different advisers before committing to one individual,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends, family, or other professionals such as accountants and solicitors are good resources, as they will likely have an existing relationship with a financial adviser they trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many super funds have staff that can help with simple switches or more broader advice, and there\u2019s a growing pile of online tools to help you work out everything from budgets to your investment risk profile.<\/p>\n
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$\"HUNT$ <\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 HUNT FOR VALUE … Speak to a few financial advisers before deciding on one.<\/span>Source:<\/em>Supplied<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nDON\u2019T BE DAUNTED<\/b><\/p>\n
Wise Owl Financial adviser Allan Ward says it can be hard to quantify the benefits of financial advice and it can be \u201ca bit daunting\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no immediate feel-good factor about it,\u201d he says. \u201cFor example, if an adviser recommends you take out insurance, you may never need to claim on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, if a health crisis strikes your family, life insurance could be one of the best decisions you made.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a similar story with other areas of financial planning. Advisers can save people thousands of dollars in tax through smart strategies, help them build wealth steadily, and put people on a path to financial freedom in retirement.<\/p>\n
GET ORGANISED<\/b><\/p>\n
Ward says you can save money by doing some preparation before your initial meeting. Write down your goals and a rough household budget, and search for your super funds online through my.gov.au.<\/p>\n
Many planners are moving away from commissions to a fee-for-service model, but it\u2019s still a bit of a mixture. Some may use insurance premium commissions to lower the cost of their other services, and don\u2019t be afraid to ask about this.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow what you get out of the process,\u201d Ward says.<\/p>\n
Freshwater says advice is not just for people with lots of money. \u201cFinancial advisers have mandatory obligations to act in your best interest, which often leads to reviewing multiple areas of your current financial circumstance and may result in significant benefits that you weren\u2019t aware of before,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0News Corp Australia Network<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: ANTHONY KEANE<\/strong> <\/p>\n
PAYING thousands of dollars to a financial planner for advice you never knew you needed is nobody\u2019s favourite way to spend money.<\/strong><\/p>\n
However, good financial advice can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}