What is financial planning?

How healthy is your financial life?

What are the benefits of financial advice?

How can forward thinking benefit you?

What deters people from seeking financial advice?

What is financial planning?

Financial planning is the process of developing strategies to help you manage your financial affairs so you can build and protect wealth, enjoy life and achieve financial security.

Making the right decisions about your finances has never been so important. A financial planner can help you do this by understanding your financial situation and helping you develop a financial plan to meet short and long-term goals.

Whether you have definite personal goals, like saving for retirement or funding your children's education or you're facing a raft of financial challenges, a financial planner can make a positive difference.

Most importantly, the value of good financial advice isn't exclusive to the wealthy. We all have the potential to build financial independence. Sometimes all it takes is a partnership with a skilled planner to help reach that potential.

Some of the services provided by a planner include setting financial goals, saving and investing, protecting your family with insurance, retirement planning and much more.

82% of Australians said that their preferred source of financial information and advice is a financial planner, followed closely by Accountants at 81%.
Source: Financial Literacy Foundation, Australians Understanding Money, September 2007

How healthy is your financial life?

We have provided a quick checklist below in relation to your financial wellbeing:

Did you answer no to any of the above questions? If so, please call our team today on 02 9972 2633 and we can support you in developing your financial plan into a plan of action to secure your financial future.

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What are the benefits of financial advice?

Some of the ways that quality financial advice could help you include:

• control over the financial planning process and your financial outcomes;
• a long-term relationship with a qualified expert who can help you reach your financial goals;
• flexibility to change your strategy through regular reviews;
• a clear understanding of and information on how to manage your financial position and any risks to your financial future;
• the ability to carefully consider your financial options with a long-term outlook.
• Attracting tax advantages for you which will mean more money in your pocket.

Your financial advisor will develop a custom made financial plan just for you. There is no need to trawl through the thousands of investment products in the marketplace when your advisor can tailor a plan for your specific needs.

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How can forward thinking benefit you?

While having a sound financial plan is essential to reaching your destination of financial freedom, it is also important to anticipate possible hazards and detours along the way. Your financial planner will help you draw out any issues that need to be considered, such as:

• How much income you will need in retirement.
• Putting a budget in place to ensure you are reducing your mortgage and other debts as quickly as possible.
• The impact on your financial security, and that of your family, if your ability to earn an income was temporarily or permanently lost.
• Ensuring your family would be provided for and that your assets would pass to the right people just as you planned it if something were to happen to you.
• Having someone in place to take care of financial matters for your family if something happens to you
• Setting up structures to accelerate mortgage payments, save tax and protect you if you are sued.

Your planner will work closely with you to assess these and other issues then deal with them in a professional and sensitive manner.

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What deters people from seeking financial advice?

In many cases, people delay or don't seek quality financial advice due to misinformation about financial planners, in particular:

Financial advisors give biased advice when linked to product providers
The great majority of financial planners in Australia work through a parent company that also sells financial services products. Some people say they are uncomfortable with this because they feel the advice they will get is biased.

Chrysalis is an independently owned and operated financial planning company. We have no parent company or particular preference in product providers. We choose products that we believe are best-of-breed in meeting specific client needs.

People dont want to pay for advice
Financial planners offer a specialist service similar to an accountant or a mechanic. Therefore they charge for their services and have a transparent approach to fees, commissions and any other costs.

Importantly, research has found that 90% of people are happy to pay for quality financial advice.

Financial advice is for the wealthy
Research has proven that households who had engaged the services of a financial advisor with an average income of less than $65,000 were significantly better off than those who had no advice. These households were much more likely to have accumulated greater wealth than similar households without a planner.

A good financial planner can assist any individual, regardless of their income. Financial advice is no longer for the wealthy. It is an important decision for every Australian who wants to enhance and maintain their lifestyle.

In total, almost 30% of Australians currently use the services of a financial planner. This increases with age from just 10% of those aged 16 to 24 years, 27% of those aged 25 to 34, 32% of those aged 35 to 49 and 37% of those aged 50 plus years.
Source: Galaxy Research prepared for the FPA, May 2008

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