 We charge a percentage-based fee of 1% of your retirement savings balance per year on an on-going basis. For the first 12 months ONLY this is increased to 2%.
Financial planning is a very intangible business, which can make it hard for members of the public to put a price on the value-add that comes from advisers.  An active fund manager selects the companies and sectors they believe are going to outperform a common index. For example, an active manager may benchmark their performance against the ASX 200. This index reflects the performance of the 200 hundred biggest companies in Australia.
Who wouldn’t people want all their investments going towards companies that outperform index management?  Building a successful business doesn’t happen overnight.
A successful business is a product of dedication, sacrifice, humility and hard graft. After years of investing a great deal of time and energy into your business it’s fair to assume it will be worth something when you decide to hang up your boots. Or will it?  This has always struck me as a question that doesn’t make sense.
In theory if a financial adviser asks their client this question, they would shoot back a defined time frame i.e. 3 years. In reality clients usually answer, “I don’t know”.  Often people invest based on a prediction the price of their chosen asset will eventually rise.
This must be the case, otherwise they’d just wait until the price drops to buy. Their predictions are usually based on a range of information sources, some credible, some not. But is it possible this information is already factored into the price?  Tax. It’s an unavoidable aspect of working.
Most people pay a lot of tax in their working life and don’t receive much assistance from the government in return. So, when it comes time to collect the Age Pension it may feel like it’s your time to finally ‘get something back’.  Most people have another ‘asset’ up their sleeve leading up to retirement; their leave entitlements.
In some cases, you may also be able to choose whether to take these entitlements as a lump sum or have this paid as a regular income (i.e. go on leave and then retire at the end of the leave period). So, which is best?  I’ve just had my first child just before I turn 30.
My father was 30 when I was born and his father was 30 when he had him. Based on this anecdote let’s assume the average 50-year-old has 80-year-old parents and 20-year-old children. Out of these three, I believe that the average 50-year-old is in the toughest spot.  “Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after.”
George Orwell said that in 1945. It was true then, is now and will probably always be true. |
