good financial planners

Hi does any one know any good financial planners which are not to expensive?

I am thinking of Freeman fox even though a little expensive. Also has anyone heard of Tricom for managed funds etc?

Tricom

Is Steve Navra a good Fplanner?

need some help before i make the switch!!!

I don't know of any good cheap financial advisors.

Though I know plenty of cheap dodgy ones that will prove very expensive in the long run!

Hi Triu,

Tricom is a mid-size brokerage firm in Sydney, I've got a mate who works in the equities area. Whether this means their managed funds are any good, who knows...

A planner should be charging you on what you specifically want, personally I don't believe that they should be bundling you into a membership but for $10k a year it would be making them very rich. After 10 years you would have paid $100k!!!

Check out the FPA Good Advice guide (Welcome to the FPA) which suggests a financial planner may charge an ongoing trail of between 0.6% and 1.0% per annum.

Also this takes away from the quality and personalisation of your whole plan, usually trails are up to 1% which means to make it cost effective I'd want between $1m and $2m in net assets to feel that I'm not getting ripped off.

Cheers,

Dan

I was impressed by Navra Financial Services.
I already had a plan of sorts mashed together after asking lots of questions on this site. After looking through my answers to their fact finder sheet, the advisor was happy enough to say that at this stage they wouldnt be able to add more value to the plan. So you only have to pay them if they can add value to your situation. Good eh

I agree - if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys

When looking for a financial planner, while cost is important, I believe the key element you should be looking for would be a planner that can truely add value to your life and also have true objectivity in their advice.

Fee only financial planning, where you pay an agreed amount (in $ not % values) for the service you require is the best form as you will get the most objective advice. Fee only planners will also rebate to you all commissions and referall fees that they may receive from any products they recommend which could save you a lot of money (and even result in them providing you with a cheque at the end of the year).

Fee-based financial planners who charge an agreed fee for plans and then a % of funds under advice, while better than a commissioned based adviser, may still be biased in their advice. For example, if you had $100,000 to invest, a fee based planner who charged 1% of your portfolio may double his income by simply recommending that you borrow an additional $100,000 (not to mention the money he may receive from the finance that he could arrange). Is this the right advice for you? It may be, but how would you know - it cannot be objective advice if there is any form of conflict of interest that may arise, and only fee only planners can provide this.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for, and while a fee based or commission adviser may seem cheaper, a fee only planner who charges agreed amounts for the service and delivers is much better.

For more information about fee only planners, check out

Independent Advice - Home


This is a great resource for sourcing planners that operate as fee only, fee based or offer a fee based service.

Neil Salkow

I personally use a financial planner and so far have been very happy with his advice, and his fees. Particular in the current financial crisis, he is very forthright but conservative, and takes personal responsibility of any recommendations. He has low overheads and actually assesses your capacity to pay. He has a range of payment options to suit anyone's budgets.
What I really like about him , he is very ethical.
His email is : michael@allwestgroup.com.au

I have to disagree with this and say that we sometines get what we pay for. I am certain we all have purchased something in the past that was not worth the money paid.

Triu, when it comes to price, they key is value.

Ask yourself, how much value is the financial adviser providing for the fees charged?

For example, if the financial adviser saved you $1,500 in tax per annum through a strategy you were not aware of, how much is that advice worth?

Let me ask you a hypothetical, why would someone buy a $2,000 watch rather than a $200 watch when both may appear to look and work in the same way.

If it was all down to price, the $200 watch would be the obvious choice. However, when buying a product or service, sometimes price is not everything and there may be other important things to consider.

Andrew, you've taken what I've said here out of context. What I meant by "you get what you pay for" is that (using your example) if you buy a cheap watch, you get a cheap watch. Sure, if you spend a lot of money on something, that doesn't automatically mean you get good value. That's why I qualified this statement by saying:

"When looking for a financial planner, while cost is important, I believe the key element you should be looking for would be a planner that can truely add value to your life and also have true objectivity in their advice."

Neil, no harm intended.

We both agree that value is one of the keys to good financial planning advice.