Financial Advice FAQs

Financial advice helps you achieve your goals in life –  whatever they are. You work hard for your money, and with advice, you’ll be able to make the most of what you earn.

Financial advice will also help you monitor your financial situation over time, ensuring you stay on track throughout your lifetime.

There are life stages when your finances need specific attention. For example, planning for retirement is hugely important, but it can also be very complex, especially with potential changes in superannuation, taxation and social security legislation. Advice SA will help you avoid any pitfalls.

Advice SA financial advisers can provide guidance on a broad range of matters to help you build, manage and protect your wealth. These include:

• Maximising your super
• Tax effective strategies to build wealth
• Transition to retirement
• Retirement income stream options
• Investments (both inside and outside of superannuation)
• Life and Income Protection insurance
• Debt elimination
• Redundancy
• Estate Planning

An experienced financial planner can help guide you through many different situations and life stages. Some of the most common and important times to seek advice include:

• When you start to consider retirement
• When you reach the age of 60
• If your personal circumstances change (e.g. redundancy or divorce)
• If you receive a significant amount of money (e.g. inheritance or property sale proceeds)
• If you’re considering retirement
• When changing jobs
• When selling an investment property
• When selling a business
• Downsizing your home to free up capital for investment
• After the loss of spouse
• When legislation changes
• When an economic or investment market changes
• If you want to minimise the tax you pay
• If your Life, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD), trauma or income protection insurance cover need reviewing or upgrading
• If you need to draw on home equity in retirement
• If you feel unhappy with your current financial situation
• If a guardian or attorney needing investment management for assets of friend or relative.

We want to make sure you’re comfortable with your decision to seek advice, as well as being sure that we can help you. That’s why our first step is to meet with you and discuss your needs. This initial appointment comes at no cost to you. You can find more information about our fee philosophy here.

Our process is as follows:

1. Call or email Advice SA to make an appointment

You will receive an appointment confirmation email after you make your appointment. It will confirm the date, time and location of your appointment, and include a Needs Analysis Guide for you to complete.

2. Complete a ‘Financial Needs Analysis’

This is for you to complete prior to meeting with us. The more ‘quality or accurate’ information you prepare for the meeting, the more meaningful the discussion will be during the initial appointment.

3. Attend initial appointment

The aim of your initial appointment is to identify and understand your financial goals. We will use the information you have provided in the needs analysis during your appointment. No personal financial advice will be provided at this time, however, you may receive general advice. This appointment comes at no cost to you.

4. Agree on quote and scope of advice

Once we understand your goals and requirements, we will provide you with a written, fixed price quote for personal financial advice. This quote will cover the cost to prepare your Statement of Advice, implement all the recommendations and will detail all associated investment products costs and fees.

There is no cost for your initial appointment. However, this is an investigation meeting and no financial advice will be provided. As a guide, the cost of a Statement of Advice ranges from $1,800 to $7,500. That depends on the complexity of your situation. The average cost of comprehensive advice is between $2,200 and $4,400. The cost is based on the time it will take to create your plan, including the preparation of a Statement of Advice. Fees, terms and conditions that apply are available directly from our Financial Services Guide (FSG).

You will receive a checklist in your confirmation email when you make an appointment, so please refer to this when you receive it for full details.

To get the most value out of your appointment, please prepare the requested documents as comprehensively as you can. The decision to seek financial advice is an important one, and you want to make the most of it. Therefore, the more information you provide, the better the result will be.

Once you have received our quote and agreed to receive advice, we will produce a document called a ‘Statement of Advice’. The Statement of Advice outlines the strategies to achieve your financial goals. This document generally takes two or three weeks to prepare, depending on the complexity of your situation and the analysis required.

Putting advice into action in financial planning is known as ‘implementation’. When your financial adviser presents you with your completed and agreed Statement of Advice, they will then discuss the implementation process. The fee for the time undertaken to complete the implementation is included in your Statement of Advice fee (i.e. there are no additional charges for this process).

Advice is provided by one of the experienced financial planners from Advice SA. We believe in building strong relationships with our clients, and helping them throughout their lifetime. Therefore, you won’t be passed around to different advisers.

Our advisers are authorised representatives of Guideway Financial Services.

Guideway provides financial advisers with the infrastructure and services they need to help clients achieve their financial objectives. Specifically, we provide practice, paraplanning, compliance and software services to a wide range of advice businesses, from boutique practices through to some of Australia’s largest government and industry superannuation funds. Collectively the organisations we support manage over $250 billion in retirement savings on behalf of over 1 million Australians.

The Guideway team is made up of approximately 50 advice and industry specialists focused on supporting our clients in providing the highest quality advice to their end-clients.

Advice SA Financial Advisers are Authorised Representatives of Guideway Financial Services Pty Ltd ABN 46 156 498 538 AFSL 420367.