Financial advice can be a tricky subject. It can be such a personal thing: we’re all different, each with different personal and financial goals.
But good financial advice is there to make your life easier, and give you peace of mind that your future is secure.
At Liston Newton Advisory, we take a holistic approach to your financial planning. Get in touch to discuss your situation with one of our experienced financial advisers.
Every situation is different
When we meet a new client, one question we ask is what prompted you to reach out to a professional for financial advice.
Some of the most common answers we hear tend to relate to what that person sees happening around their peer group:
- “Our neighbours are way ahead of us, and they have a similar income”;
- “Our friends lost everything overnight because of a poor financial decision, and we don’t want to suffer the same fate”; or
- “My brother fell ill and didn’t have enough insurance cover in place”.
In some cases, our clients have realised that trying to manage their finances on their own isn’t working, and they’ve found themselves well out of their depth.
Managing your finances yourself can be risky
We know why people may choose to manage their finances themselves. With the financial advice industry going through significant scrutiny after the Royal Commission back in 2018, it’s understandable that some people may have lost their faith on the profession. They’d rather try their hand at managing it on their own than risk being burned by a potentially questionable practitioner.
Interestingly, though, the number of financial advisers has dropped from a peak of 26,500 in 2019, to 16,671 now. This means that, under new regulations, ther eare 10,000 advisers that no longer meet the strict requirements to provide financial advice.
This represents a 38% drop in the number of advisers out there, whic hmeans the quality and reliability of the advisers available has increased.
Why financial advice is important
Dealing with financial markets isn’t an easy thing to grasp. Often, there tends to be a focus on short-term return, guided by high return promises and market tail winds. Fear and greed, mixed with a lack of experience, has never been a good recipe for optimal financial outcomes.
But experienced professionals know that the only certain thing in the financial market is that they remain in constant, and will continue to do so. The last couple of years are a perfect example on how rapidly and extensively things can change.
Is it worth paying for financial and investment advice? Absolutely. Good quality professional financial advice helps you navigate this uncertainty with confidence, and gives you a strategy to follow regardless of what’s happening in the market.
It’s all about taking a long-term view, and partnering with a guide to help you get there.
What your financial adviser can help you achieve
As individuals, we work hard to build a nest egg for ourselves and our family. When it comes to securing our future, it could almost be considered irresponsible to not to have someone in our corner helping us protect our financial wellbeing.
So the firststep to getting good financial and investment advice is in finding the right qualified adviser. The right adviser can help you with:
- Identifying your financial goals
- Day-to-day budget and cash flow management
- Arranging mortgages, loans, and reviewing debt
- Taking control of your super Comparing different superannuation and insurance options
- Evaluating your risk capacity
- Starting on your investment journey
- Managing all the associated paperwork for you
Where to get financial and investmen tadvice
Choosing the right financial adviser starts with identifying your requirements. If they offer the services that you need, then it’s a good first step.
But it’s not all about their qualifications. When it comes to providing top quality financial advice, we believe that it’s important your financial adviser:
- Is passionate about what they do
- Has enough experience to base their guidance on what they’ve learned during their time in the industry
- Aligns with your views and personality
- Seeks to educate you, as well as advising
- Can adapt their skills and expertise to your needs.
After all, you’re trusting them to advise on and manage you and your family’s financial future. So it’s important that you feel comfortable with them, and you feel that you can work with them for the future.
It’s not something you should rush in to. Take the time to look around, talk with a selection of advisers, and find the one that you’re most comfortable with.
A good financial adviser will offer a free, no-obligation meeting to introduce you to their suite of services. They will be clear about how they can help you and what the associated fees are going to be.
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Want to know more about our services?
A 90-minute strategy session gives you a clear plan for financial freedom.
- Get a better understanding of your situation
- We generate a detailed report from your strategy session
- Understand your priorities and next steps
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The final word
There’s no single best way to approach financial wellbeing. And there’s certainly no magic formula. Ultimately, what defines a good financial adviser is their ability to understand your needs, adapt to them, and partner with youto fulfil them.
At Liston Newton Advisory we believe that you can’t provide proper advice without knowing your entire financial situation first. So we provide a completely free, no-obligation discovery meeting that helps us understand your unique situation and requirements. We get to know who you are first, and the goals that you have personally, for your family, and for your business.
Once we’ve established what you want to achieve, we then help create a map for you to get there.
