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James Coyle
James has over 35 years experience in financial services with particular expertise in two of the key components of retirement finance - Superannuation and the Age Pension. He is passionate about providing the guidance and support that can help older Australians enjoy their best possible retirement. He lives in regional Victoria surrounded by dogs and chooks.
When super was introduced in 1992 i’m sure those who created it had no idea it would turn into the animal it has become.
It has become so complicated that members have no way of navigating through the layers of information and red tape
Billions of dollars are extracted from ordinary, compulsory investors by money grabbing companies for running the various schemes and offering advice, money that would benefit members more if it stayed in their super accounts, no wonder there is not a lot of trust with financial advisers
You state that the number of advisors has dropped over the last few years but I’ll bet that the costs have not gone down and companies are still making the same, or more.
Interesting read – I thought the word ‘Trust’ is hard to achieve, as the investment markets (Funds in super) have been having too many swings up and down in the past 14 years. Low bank interest rates have forced retirees to risk more in conservative or balance funds to have an actual return on super investment.
I have had financial advisors but found what they promised does not really occur. Pay a monthly fee and only get nothing in advice – just a statement from the Trust Fund telling me the rates achieved … overall. Not sure how direct costs are calculated or if fair and equitable. Even when you ask how your funds are invested they are in various established funds ( no details) from funds.
I was in GESB and changed to Colonial First State Wholesale index Balance fund – retirement fund.
So my question is what does the $330 fee cover?
Thanks
Hi Ray, thank you for your comment! Regarding what our service/fee covers, our adviser will spend time with you using our retirement forecasting tools to help you understand your options to enjoy a better retirement.
It is hard to know how much you can safely spend and how much you need to put aside when you don’t know for sure how long your money needs to last. You might live longer or shorter than average, investment markets will go up and down and unexpected events can send our well laid plans off track.
Our retirement forecasting tools can help you to understand the options and rules to better enjoy your retirement including providing answers to the big questions that worry most retirees. You will have the option to compare your current situation to provide you with confidence in your decisions. We will provide you with a strategy paper after the appointment.
Hmm… years ago, pre-GFC, I did my own financial plan, pre-retirement. A spreadsheet, it fitted on an A4 page. When I complained at a Superannuation forum that their cash returns were poor compared to those I could achieve for that portion of my nest egg, a consultant berated me and told me condescendingly that I would understand if I had a financial plan done. Said plan cost $4000 and was mostly a template that the ‘paraplanner’ used to enter data supplied by me. What a waste of my time and money.
That was my second bad experience with an advisor. The first was when I was advised to switch from a government superannuation scheme to the current model. Had I stayed with the defined-benefit government pension scheme my funds would not be subject to market instability now, and would be indexed for inflation. Although as a woman I had missed 10 years of super accumulation, I could have ‘topped up’ by buying extra units from that point on. And I still could have built other investments.
Some ‘advice’ I thankfully didn’t take a couple of years ago was to switch from blue-chip shares to new growth investments … tech start-ups, crypto-currencies and the like. Whew!
I know my funds ‘could’ earn more if my superannuation was in more risky ‘growth investments. I retired in 2007 at nearly 57 years old.
I am now 72 years old, and my priority is not “growth” investments, but to live a minimalist-possessions, maximum-experiences lifestyle. Apart from the Covid years, that is happening!
Your model of advice seems much more focussed on the client’s needs and values than many advisor groups out there. Thank you.