Financial Planner recommendations in melbourne???

have never had a financial planner, need to review our insurances etc. any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

dover group

 

Thanks Terry

 

Cody Harmond, Hardline Wealth, 0417 432 331.
He does not take any commission and is therefore actually happy to give good advice around investments because he is not biased. Also a really smart guy.

 

Fee, commission, upfront, trail, stepped, fee for advice, fee based on policy value, fee based on time taken for review and advice etc. You have been watch industry super ads for too long to suggest commissions drive financial advisers. All income that is paid for advice directly or indirectly can induce bias to any advice. Professional advisers get paid by someone. To give advice.

All licensed advisers must meet the client best interest test and offer advice that is free of such issues. The advice will disclose this too.

Its common when we are to be paid a fee by a insurer that it may well cover the advice cost. So the client pays us no fee. Its all disclosed and only if they acknowledge the advice statement. I can assure you for all the effort and compliance its not like anyone earns $2k for 2 hours work. A upfront $700 fee for three to four hours of work is more typical.

 

I used to work at AMP and I can tell you that many advisers just want to drive the highest possible volume of funds onto their platform (Colonial First State, Hub 24, North etc.) so they can take a volume based fee. Many won't even consider property investment for this reason.

Seeing it from the inside may have given me a skewed view, but in my opinion many (80%) advisers do not give good investment advice.

I'm less concerned about insurance as this is relatively straight forward but if you talk to many financial advise clients they have no idea about the specifics of their policy. And many advisers will add on all the bells and whistles to increase the premium when that may not be what the client needs.

 

Weren't commissions banned a few years ago? (except for insurance). Are they now getting around this with volume based fees?

 

Generally via a volume based 'advice fee', but also on rebates from licences and white labelling platforms.

 

Sneaky buggers.

does this apply to independant groups - ie those not owned by a financial institution.

 

It depends on the adviser and how they run their business. I know a independent advisers (own financial services licence) that runs almost entirely on volume based advice fees.

The trick is to fiddle with the assumptions to make managed funds the 'best option.

 

The ones I have seen have been getting around it on white label products with increased "training and support".

You can get every cost of your business covered through volume fees including owners salaries.

If the planner is independent, unbiased and impartial then they are not doing it. Independently owned can be misleading - the banks are just managing the licensing paperwork and everything is business as usual. I am sure some people try - it is just near impossible to identify who is really doing it.

And the advisors can justify anything they want to for a client - the best interest test means nothing if the real motivator is money.

I think buyer beware is a good strategy. Some are great people with the right intention - it is just a shame that for the bulk it is a product driven industry with a limited range of product on offer.

We do not do it for that reason. Happy to be independent. I understand others have a different attitude and I am ok with that.