Choosing A Financial Adviser

How to choose the right financial adviser?

Choosing the right financial planner can be daunting. Trusting someone with your financial life is daunting and not something that should be taken lightly.  Some advisers specialise in a particular area of advice such as setting up SMSFs.

Some prefer to take control of your funds and do share buying and selling for you as part of a “managed discretionary” agreement.  Some will have their own in house managed fund available for clients to invest in. There are many differences to look for.

Before engaging an adviser, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What adviser/company attributes will help me trust the advice I am given?
2. Do I need advice in a particular area or more general over-arching advice?
3. Do I want to relinquish control of my investments to an adviser or would I prefer to do this myself?
4. How often will I need to go back to the adviser and receive further advice?

Here at Andep Investment Consultancy, we are quite a niche company.  Of course we do not believe we will suit everyone but for those we are suitable for, we offer a very unique proposition.

Above all else, the advice you receive from Andep will be honest, transparent and highly detailed.  The way would address the questions above is as follows:

1. Andep is owned by a single director and has it’s own financial services licence. This means we are not owned or affiliated with a bank or other financial institution.  We also receive no commissions or fees for any of the products we recommend.  This means we choose products for you based purely on their suitability and cost effectiveness.
2. We do not have a particular area, such as SMSFs, that we claim to specialise in.  Though our Director, Dennis Barton, is an actuary as well as a financial adviser so you can be assured that all written advice has an extraordinary level of detail and precision.
3. We do not invest on your behalf and much prefer you retain control of your financial affairs as much as you are able to.  Therefore the investments we recommend are not overly complex and are almost always long term investments that do not need to be bought and sold on a regular basis.
4. Because of the light touch approach we take to financial advice, you should not need to regularly return for further advice.  Some advisers request you see them every year and charge an ongoing fee for doing so.  At Andep, we believe a financial plan is much like a will. You should always have one and you should update is as and when your circumstances significantly change. I.e bith of a child, marriage, death of a family member, significant change in wealth, significant change in income.  Otherwise, not much needs to change from year to year.  Anything that will need to change from year to year we will include in your Statement of Advice document and you can simply refer back to that each year for anything that you need to do.