Empower Wealth experiences?

Thanks Josh
Regards
Ben

 

Ben, I saw on your website one of our regular members has joined your team:

@Jake Milne

 

Certainly have It's been great working with @Lil Skater and we'll continue our working relationship as I'm gradually transitioning to Empower - thoroughly impressed by the company Ben has built and by the standard of practice/ ethics Empower operates with too.

 

Yes, that's right @Jake Milne has just left us here. Still very much working together and will continue to do so in the future

 

HI , do you huys do overall financial advisong or planning....?

 

Yes that's right
Great to have Jake join our growing team. He's a highly rated and awarding winning BA, so its exciting times
Cheers
Ben

 

Hi Newfast,

We have several advisory divisions from Property Wealth Planning to Financial Planning to Buyers Agency services, so the answer is all of the above. We tailor any advice to their situation and as part of this process, we work out which would be the right advisor for you to seek advice from

Cheers
Ben

 

Hi all,

We've just finished a process with Empower Wealth for portfolio planning and unfortunately were very disappointed. We're a young family with a small portfolio so were keen to get some direction with our portfolio and map out a plan for next 5,10,20yrs. I'd sat thru loads of seminars, webinars and researched posts like this before I decided to go ahead with Empower.

The process started out ok, very comprehensive in terms of data they ask for. I can understand from a budgeting perspective why this happens. What disappointed us were a few things:
1. the extended time it took - after 5 months into the process we hadn't heard from our consultant for 6 weeks before we finally had enough (we were initially told 4 or 5 meetings, 2 weeks a part).
2. Each meeting with our consultant they just read information off their spreadsheet. Any questions we had outside of that seemed a bit too difficult. No prep done for any meetings.
3. Even after we voiced concerns and asked for a refund (which we'd been told initially was available if we weren't satisfied but turned out not to be the case) we still have not had one phone call from our consultant or anyone at Empower to discuss our concerns.

I really dont like to give negative feedback, but I rely on forums like this and other investors experiences given it's so hard to get good, unbiased advice on property investing. I'm happy to pay a fee for good advice, thats why I initially went to Empower. It's just disappointing that we seemed to be left on the sidelines forgotten about and even when we made some noise nobody bothered to pick up the phone and talk to us.

 

I'd advise to speak to the director of the company to get this sorted out.
Become a problem that won't go away easily.

 

Interesting I've listened to the guys podcast from Episode 1, read their book and love the content. I started the process to do a plan almost 12 months ago and didn't end up going through as something didn't feel right. I wasn't dealing with Ben but someone else and I got a strong feeling that this someone else wasn't as experienced as Ben.

Hearing some of the feedback on this thread I'm glad with my decision but I also feel for the guys, I do think they have great capability but like a lot of small businesses are trying to find a way to take two great minds and multiply that without loosing quality not a easy job.

 

You should pm ben as he is the head of the company

As i stated in my long winded answer a few months ago, it is hard to get a team of champions in any franchise. Ben is the jewel in the crown as far as empower wealth is concerned, but unfortunately now, he is too busy building up the business to concentrate on clients

There i believe is your problem'
It is not possible to replicate 10 Ben's in their business
I wish i started my property journey earlier, maybe 6-7yrs ago and used him for everything exclusively then

In my dealings,Ben has fantastic knowledge,patience and care and i did my plan with him and one of his colleagues(upon my insistence) as he was too busy to do it from start to finish
Whenever i had ben's input, it was extremely helpful and reassuring and patient
When his colleague was answering my questions when ben wasnt around he was ok also, but he is NOT ben,
I am trying out BA services now for 1st purchase. Ben's partner Bryce the head of their ba services is not accepting any new clients, so if u use their services, u will be put with one of their newer BAs.
I believe that my current ba with empower is good(after i requested a change), but what i was concerned about at the time was that it seems all the new clients are being put with all the newer, possibly less experienced staff, which concerned me, as these services should be performed by someone with many years experience
The initial ba they put me with, i believe doesnt even have an ip and he was new to the company
I said, no way and changed to another ba in the company

For anyone considering using the property planning, use ben for the initial consult(4wks wait) and ask that u want to do it together with him and his associate, not just his associate
Any questions guys, you can pm me

 

Hi Kr11,

I hope you're finding the service is as good or better than expected.

Solely for clarity, there are 3 males on the BA team here.
1. Bryce the director;
2. Brad the admin assistant (who does meet with clients sometimes for the initial consult but never manages their cases)
3. and me!

In case, you were referring to me in your post please understand that many people on the forum here already know my first I.P was bought 8 years ago, that I've been a BA for 5 years and a member of Somersoft/ Property Chat for years too. I love this forum and when I've time I try and help by sharing information like: VIC - Full VIC write up.

That being said, people often assume I'm "new" because I look young (being asked for I.D at 33 isn't flattering haha).

Anyway, the whole team here in BA, regardless of their own level of experience, shares their progress with the team weekly so clients benefit from the combined expertise whenever they're on their way to purchasing.

Good luck with your purchase!

 

Hi Gonz45,

To date we have helped over 2500 Australians with property, finance, and wealth creation advice, so I never like learning about unhappy clients. I have sent you an message for us to personal catch up to rectify this situation.

 

I am looking at using empower wealth for my 2nd purchase early next year. As I'm very time poor and from what I've herd they have the best market research you can get.

Some of these comments do concern me but I would definatly use them if I got to deal direct with Ben or Bryce as I believe it's alot of money to hand over and I Want to know I've got the best people working for me in my best interest and I think they would do that .

Has any one actually had results using empower wealth? and if so would you please be kind enough to share with me

I would love to see results

 

+1 - The B&P issues in one of the previous posts concerned me, I used an agent in BNE for a purchase and the quality of their work around this was of the highest standard.

I am ready to pull the trigger for Empower but I would want Bryce on the case, have also seen Jake on the forum a fair bit as well. I've made contact with them through their site so I'll see what they come back with.

My previous BA experience in Brisbane was great and I enjoyed the whole process - they do not focus heavily in VIC though so I cannot use them this time around unfortunately

 

Is that a typo or a subliminal msg?

 

Your comments are very kindly received. Just for the record I am not taking any more direct clients as I currently have hundreds of clients I look after and I don't want these clients to loose access to me on their journey. This move has allowed me to spend more time training and developing our growing Property Advisory team. If I use a medical example, the best doctors in the world learnt from their peers, so there is nothing different to the approach we are taking to make our team the very best they can be.
Cheers,
Ben

 

Hi guys,

My wife and I are currently in the position of being close to debt free and looking to start saving for our first house deposit (rather quickly - sizeable disposable income). Although I've read a lot about property etc I know I would appreciate professional advice of this nature to ensure we have a plan to stick to etc.

Although I definitely plan to contact Empower Wealth regarding the free introductory session, I very much want to shop around before making a decision to engage a company in particular. From what I understand, Empower Wealth offer unique portfolio planning services (greately attributed to their bespoke program).
Are there other suppliers in Australia whom provide similar strategic property acquisition/financial planning?

Cheers,

A

 

There are plenty and the quality of advice will vary, but may be wiser to select one that is local and / or prospecting in the market you are considering purchasing in.

 

Hi just wondering if this ever got cleared up and your experience improved? I am all set to have a plan completed but was really hoping to read some more positive experiences.

Does anyone else have first hand experience both with their property plan and buyers agent services.

Thanks.