Comments on: 10 FREE Tips Your Financial Planner Doesnt Want You to Know http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/ Technology Reviews, Movies and TV Shows, Personal Finance, Politics, Environment, Books... Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:08:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Matthew Ross http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-35457 Matthew Ross Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:04:37 +0000 http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-35457 How do you surmount the gap? Create a profession that provides advice, that can be trusted. What is in place right now is an industry full of salespeople (consider that 80% of financial planners in Australia are employed by or aligned to a product manufacturer, bank, insurance company or fund manager and you can see why this is a valid point). ASIC is slowly changing the rules, forcing us to become a profession. Shame the likes of the FPA didn't have more guts to lead these changes instead of being dragged kicking and screaming to the place the profession needs to be. Intelligent people can get on Google and access all the information on the WWW that they need. It's not rocket science, it just takes a hellavalot of time. That's why real intelligent people seek advice from an independent financial adviser (and see the value in paying someone else to help them rather than re-create the wheel and possibly get it wrong themselves). How do you surmount the gap? Create a profession that provides advice, that can be trusted. What is in place right now is an industry full of salespeople (consider that 80% of financial planners in Australia are employed by or aligned to a product manufacturer, bank, insurance company or fund manager and you can see why this is a valid point).

ASIC is slowly changing the rules, forcing us to become a profession. Shame the likes of the FPA didn’t have more guts to lead these changes instead of being dragged kicking and screaming to the place the profession needs to be.

Intelligent people can get on Google and access all the information on the WWW that they need. It’s not rocket science, it just takes a hellavalot of time. That’s why real intelligent people seek advice from an independent financial adviser (and see the value in paying someone else to help them rather than re-create the wheel and possibly get it wrong themselves).

]]> By: Commonsense http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-35450 Commonsense Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:32:23 +0000 http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-35450 Matthew, you do make a good point about DIY. But consider the recent ASIC report on advice. Only about 23% of the working population has sort advice. The difference between what the consumer is willing to pay for advice ($300-$400) and what adviser charge is huge. How do you surmount the gap? How do we get more Australians to think about their finances and seek advice or information? If intelligent people are willing to take control of their own situation, why not give them access to information that they can use to make informed decisions? See the the government website moneysmart.gov.au. It has a range of information from managing your money to super, investing and looking out for scams. Try it! One of the best thing our government have done for a while. Cheers and happy returns for the festive season. Matthew, you do make a good point about DIY. But consider the recent ASIC report on advice. Only about 23% of the working population has sort advice. The difference between what the consumer is willing to pay for advice ($300-$400) and what adviser charge is huge.

How do you surmount the gap? How do we get more Australians to think about their finances and seek advice or information?

If intelligent people are willing to take control of their own situation, why not give them access to information that they can use to make informed decisions? See the the government website moneysmart.gov.au. It has a range of information from managing your money to super, investing and looking out for scams. Try it! One of the best thing our government have done for a while. Cheers and happy returns for the festive season.

]]> By: Matthew Ross http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-35022 Matthew Ross Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:06:54 +0000 http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-35022 Anthony there are managed funds which are transparent, provide diversification and allow Mum and Dads who haven't got time to get a degree in accounting access to capital markets. Google Vanguard, Dimensional and State Street Global Advisers for a start. Your comment about "not investing into something you don't understand" is simple, effective but limits most people to bank accounts, term deposits and residential property (which isn't such a bad thing). But it does mean that they miss out on wealth created on stockmarkets over time. Investing into Woolworths and BHP or a big bank directly doesn't count if you can't work out how to read a Profit and Loss statement, balance sheet, financial statements. Hence my comment about not having time to get an accounting degree. It's not that complicated, low cost, low turnover, diversified managed funds are still a good solution for long term, patient, wise wealth accumulators. Anthony there are managed funds which are transparent, provide diversification and allow Mum and Dads who haven’t got time to get a degree in accounting access to capital markets.

Google Vanguard, Dimensional and State Street Global Advisers for a start.

Your comment about “not investing into something you don’t understand” is simple, effective but limits most people to bank accounts, term deposits and residential property (which isn’t such a bad thing). But it does mean that they miss out on wealth created on stockmarkets over time.

Investing into Woolworths and BHP or a big bank directly doesn’t count if you can’t work out how to read a Profit and Loss statement, balance sheet, financial statements. Hence my comment about not having time to get an accounting degree. It’s not that complicated, low cost, low turnover, diversified managed funds are still a good solution for long term, patient, wise wealth accumulators.

]]> By: Anthony Stedman http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-34570 Anthony Stedman Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:55:31 +0000 http://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/10-free-tips-your-financial-planner-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#comment-34570 I agree with all of the points but wonder why people continue to recommend and use Managed Funds in today's world. Surely we have moved on from these investments that; Lack transparency around fees and charges Are mis-named creating a false sense of what they can expect from them in terms of performance etc Are confusing to use and not understood by most "Planners" never mind the poor client stuck in them. My message for all clients is to consider all of the above points but when it comes to investing, if you don't understand it, the don't do it. Really simple I agree with all of the points but wonder why people continue to recommend and use Managed Funds in today’s world.

Surely we have moved on from these investments that;
Lack transparency around fees and charges
Are mis-named creating a false sense of what they can expect from them in terms of performance etc
Are confusing to use and not understood by most “Planners” never mind the poor client stuck in them.

My message for all clients is to consider all of the above points but when it comes to investing, if you don’t understand it, the don’t do it.

Really simple

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