Good advice from an experienced, well-informed Financial Planner can help you save money, protect against risk, manage debts, grow your assets, reduce tax liabilities, plan for retirement, identify entitlements for government benefits, and plan what inheritance is to be left to your dependents. An Assure Wealth Financial Planner’s responsibility is to the client, not to a product manufacturer or a bank.

When providing personal financial advice an Financial Planner must take into account the individual client’s circumstances and goals and act in their best interest at all times. The advice may involve the recommendation of a financial product, or it may be strategic in nature. The role of an Assure Wealth Financial Planner is NOT to push any particular financial products. Strategy is always the key consideration.

Most people choose to see a financial adviser when a significant event happens in their life. They may need expert advice to help them consider their options and to understand their current financial position, plus a strategy for the future. Once people find a Financial Planner whom they trust, a long-term relationship develops with regular meetings to review changing needs and circumstances.

People most often consult a Financial Planner when one of the following events occur:

• Starting work or changing jobs leading to consideration of superannuation options
• Getting married
• Starting a family, and saving for education costs
• Buying a house
• Looking to start a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF)
• Divorce
• Looking to pay off the mortgage faster
• Looking to invest to accumulate wealth
• Turning 50 and planning for retirement
• Inheriting money, receiving redundancy payments or other lump sum payments.

A Financial Planner seeks to understand each client’s different unique circumstances, needs and financial objectives and to recommend an appropriate financial strategy.

There is an established financial planning process which Financial Planners follow with every new client:

1. Collect financial information about the client to determine their current situation
2. Identify financial and lifestyle goals – short, medium and long-term
3. Identify any financial gaps or issues
4. Prepare a financial plan
5. Implement the financial plan
6. Review and revise the plan at regular intervals, or when your circumstances change.

How much money or assets do I need to see an adviser?

This is a common misconception that we encounter. The actual amount or assets does not matter. The situation of each individual is unique and equally important. Assure Wealth will look at your situation and help you with a strategy that is best for you.

You can’t afford to leave yourself or your wealth unprotected. Protecting yourself and your hard-earned assets through appropriate insurance is an integral part of the financial planning process. The trauma of death, accident or serious illness can be devastating for you, your family and your financial situation, especially if you’re still in the process of accumulating wealth and paying off your mortgage.

The right insurance advice can help you minimise risks, secure your family’s financial future and soften the financial blow of serious illness or injury. A Financial Planner is able to analyse your insurance needs and recommend appropriate wealth protection solutions.

The same care and expertise your Financial Planner applies to your affairs during your lifetime extends to the transfer of your assets to your family and other beneficiaries when you die. They can make sure that your wealth is transferred to the right people, at the right time, in the most tax-effective way possible.

Your Financial Planner can work with you, your Solicitor or an estate planning specialist to help you structure a tax-effective estate plan using testamentary trusts and other strategies to protect your assets from unnecessary taxation or challenge.

Before you meet an Assure Wealth Financial Planner for the first time, it’s best to be prepared so that you can get the most from the meeting. Good financial advice relies on getting a clear picture of your financial situation.

For example, you could start by listing:

• What you own - your home, savings, superannuation accounts, cars, shares and other investments
• What you owe - debts including mortgages, loans and outstanding credit card balances
• An estimate of your monthly income and expenses
• What personal insurance you have and for how much
• Whether you have an up-to-date Will and when it was last reviewed

Copies of your pay slip, savings or offset account and super statements will also help the adviser get a snap shot of your finances.

It's also helpful to do some advance thinking about your priorities and goals so you can go to the first meeting with a 'brief' for the adviser.

For example do you want to:

• Pay off your mortgage quicker?
• Build wealth and save for retirement?
• Protect your family through insurance?
• Save for your children's education?
• Make the most of an inheritance?

Also think about the type of advice you'd like. Are you expecting the adviser to prepare a broad financial plan or do you want advice on a particular area?

Our fees are mutually agreed directly between us and our clients and are not incentivized on product sales.  We work on a fee-for-service basis and quote the fee upfront before a client commits to advice.  Our ongoing advice fees, if applicable, are cancellable at any time.

The decision to rollover your superannuation money from one fund to the next should be taken with caution. First, you must do your research to find out the fees, benefits and insurance that each fund offers. This can often be a difficult process to do on your own and you should seek expert advice from a Financial Planner. Often, old super funds have valuable life insurance benefits attached to them which you may not even know about. However, if you roll your funds out of that super fund all the insurance benefits will be lost and you may not be able to secure replacement cover, especially if you have health issues.

The return on any investment is linked to the risk associated with the investments. As the saying goes ‘the higher the risk, the higher the return’. It is important to assess how much risk you are prepared to take in order to achieve the higher return.

We agree all financial advice fees with you in advance before any work commences. Fees are based on the scope and complexity of the work we have agreed to undertake on your behalf. Some of this fee may be deducted from your superannuation fund. Plus, some of the fee may be tax-deductible depending on your situation.

Our dynamic investment approach has, at its foundation, a philosophy or belief structure of what drives markets and investment outcomes. Along with this philosophy, a structured decision making framework serves to remove the emotional (and at times frightening) elements of financial markets from rational decision making. This framework provides the requisite flexibility to respond to the dynamic nature of markets and new unforeseeable situations, while maintaining the direction and structure that a well thought out and disciplined investment process provides investors.

Core Investment Beliefs

The following core beliefs drive our investment philosophy and process when managing client portfolios:

• Markets are inefficient over the short to medium term; investor behaviour and sentiment can drive asset prices to extremes
• Reward for risk from investing varies through time; valuation strongly influences the reward for risk and potential capital losses
• Mean reversion drives capital markets over the long-term
• Potential capital loss is the most appropriate measure of investment risk
• A strong research framework is required to identify opportunities and threats
• Using a patient and disciplined approach provides superior long-term real returns

Investment Philosophy

We believe building a portfolio of assets to match the individual goals of our clients, and adapting portfolio’s to the current market conditions, is the surest way to generate long-term wealth. Our investment philosophy is value-orientated; we believe the potential for capital loss is the most appropriate measure of investment risk, and we fundamentally believe that the price you pay for an asset has a meaningful impact on its future return.