The Retiree Couple, A quick story.
Recently a new client came in to explore working with Arch Capital.
They were just about to retire, had a fair bit of complexity and had seen various advisers over the years.
Despite having great assets and decent amount of money in super they had a few financial issues and were really seeking a relationship they could trust. They were afraid that all financial planners did was sell product and didn’t care about their clients and how they can help them to save money for their retirement.
Given their current set up I could understand why they had concerns about the advice they may receive. Here is a quick summary of what I typically see and it was the same with these clients:
- They had not sat down as a couple and really mapped out what was important to them
- They only had a loose idea of how much money and income they needed.
- They had not really thought about the transition to retirement and the lifestyle impact
- They had elderly parents that would soon need to consider entering care. They had no idea what this would involve, the costs and social security impacts.
- They had Superannuation in three retail funds costing around 3% a year when all fees were added up, with mediocre performance at best.
- They had paid for a financial planer a few years ago that simply recommend that they switch products and pay someone a commission, so they “shelved” the “plan”.
- 4 credit cards they did not need
- Bank accounts with 4 different banks, some they did not even have logins for
- Car loans at very high rates
- No real system to track and manage their finances
- Overdue tax returns and they had not claimed interest and depreciation for an investment property.
- They had another $5k of legitimate deductions they had not been claiming for business-related expenses.
So …with some simple independent advice, i.e. leading with the client’s interest and not a product, they were able to work with an adviser who is actually interested in their specific goals and not the product that can be sold to them.
They have someone who is highly qualified and experienced and is looking out for them and they can call.
They now have their whole financial house looked after by a team of experts with chartered accountants and highly qualified and experienced financial advisers working as a team for them all from the same business.
Oh – and their investments and super are now invested properly and costing them 2% less ( which equated to over $20,000 per annum!)
It’s giving them peace of mind, clarity about their future and a system to be able to coordinate it all so that they can utilise their assets and also ensure their parents are going to be ok.
Advisers who are independently owned and licensed simply have a better ability to provide this type of service to clients and truly build a relationship based on advice and not a product.
