How we work with clients

We are a privately owned and licensed financial planning business. We don’t receive any commissions from investment products and we don’t generally charge a percentage of the client’s investments. We charge for our time and expertise, and we spend our time working out the best strategies for our clients having regard to their age, income, investment preferences, investment timeline, family plans, tax situation etc.

Charging this way assures the client that we have no bias towards one investment or another. We get paid the same whether the client invests in a share portfolio, a property, a business or even an avocado farm! We don’t ‘sell’ anything to earn our living. It also means that our clients don’t need to have a large sum of money to work with us. Generally, if a person has surplus income of about $15,000 or more per year, we can help them do great things with it.

We normally start by developing a ‘Strategic Financial Plan’ (SFP) for clients. This is a road map and investment budget document that defines what our goals are and what we believe is the best strategy to achieve them. Generally it includes investments, tax planning and cashflow modelling for between 5 and 10 years. The cost of an SFP is between $3,000 and $8,000 inc GST depending on the complexity of the scenario and the client’s investment objectives. Obviously there is great variation in these factors from client to client. If a client is just starting out with their investments the SFP would be at the lower end of the range. Complex scenarios include cases where clients are in the process of selling a business, have multiple property and stock investments, have a Self-Managed Superannuation Fund or are employing a more complex trust structure.

We always provide a Financial Planning Proposal before we commence work for clients so the cost is known up front and the client receives no surprises.

We also provide on-going strategy, financial planning and investment management. This involves regular assessment of investments, opportunities, tax strategies, cashflow budgeting and providing general ‘drive’ to keep the client on track and moving towards their goals.

We often help as much by guiding clients with what NOT to do as with what TO do. Our experience is that this on-going assistance is most valuable when the client’s situation is changing or when investment markets are volatile or in decline. On-going services range from approximately $3,500 up to over $20,000 per year depending on the complexity of the situation, the investments and the level of oversight and management that clients wish us to assist with. Importantly, costs are agreed ahead of time and we operate under an Ongoing Service Agreement that outlines our services and the costs for them. There are no lock-in contracts and ongoing advice can be cancelled at any time.

Our fees will usually increase slightly in line with inflation each year. In recent times we have experienced significant changes in regulation, insurance and compliance costs that have led to an increased cost for our clients, but otherwise our costs do not generally increase unless the scope of work we are doing for the client increases. I.e. we don’t charge more just because the client is getting wealthier. We may provide an updated proposal if the client asks or requires us to do more work for them, or their investments require more management or oversight due to increased scale, risk or complexity.

I (Nic) generally like to meet everyone I work with in person. It’s important to both of us that we are a match before investing our time and effort. We service the Central Western NSW area predominantly but I travel to Sydney at least once or twice each month and Canberra every couple of months for client meetings.