The Loft - Level 2, 627 Chapel Street, South Yarra, VIC 3141

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

what is financial planning?

If you could achieve your financial goals by simply leaving your money in the bank, you wouldn’t need a financial plan. Sadly, life isn’t so simple – it’s hard to understand the intricacies of investment, taxation and changing regulations, so you need professional help.

At Pinnacle Road, our industry professionals are here to help you stay on track of both your short-term and longer-term financial goals, from plans as simple as taking a holiday, to something as complex as buying a property.

Financial planning is therefore an essential service for people of all levels of financial health, as our financial planners have the technical expertise to guide you through services such as budgeting, superannuation, life insurance and wealth management.

  • SUPERANNUATION
  • PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
  • PERSONAL INSURANCE
  • BUDGETING
  • DEBT MANAGEMENT
  • ESTATE PLANNING

Personal superannuation (often simply known as ‘super’), is money set aside during your working life which can be used to provide income for when you retire. For most people, your super will begin when you start work, as your employer pays money into a super account in your name, which is then managed by a super fund.

From here, most people don’t realise that they can control where their super is invested and what is the appropriate mix of growth assets, such as shares and property, and defensive assets, such as cash and fixed interest, that their super is invested into.  Over time, the contributions, together with earnings (less any taxes and fees) are used to pay members on retirement.

Another key consideration for your super is determining what is the right level of contributions for you.  In most cases, the more you put into super the better you will be off in the long term but this needs to be balanced with the fact that once the funds are in super, you can’t access the money for personal purposes until retirement.

You also need to think about what type of super fund is right for you, be it an industry fund, a retail fund of perhaps even a self-managed super fund. Most of the time, the answer to this questions comes down to how much does it cost to administer your super and we are here to help you work through this and balance your needs and objectives.

Super is your money, your future, and ultimately one of the keys to financial independence and prosperity in retirement. We therefore strongly advise that you seek advice from our trusted financial advisors, so that we can devise a tailored contribution and investment strategy on your behalf.

Building a quality investment portfolio takes time, skill and experience.  In addition, it always needs to be closely reviewed in light of changing markets and economies to ensure if is still delivering against your goals.  As the years go by, we also need to ensure that the balance of growth versus defensive assets is right for you as well.

When you have a long investment time horizon and strong cashflow from working, it generally makes sense to have a greater allocation towards growth based assets like shares and property.  As you move closer to retirement and will need your portfolio to generate stable income for you, then it may be appropriate to reduce your level of exposure to growth based assets.  However, for someone retiring at 65, it would be reasonable to think they still have another 15-20 years to live so you still need growth assets in your portfolio.

We tailor all of our portfolios to our clients needs.  We have the ability to invest across all major assets classes and have the ability to advise on Australian ASX listed investments as well.

An holistic financial plan is only complete when it looks at risk management and the financial impact that death, total and permanent disability or serious illness or injury will have on you and your family.  We hope that none of our clients will ever have to make a personal insurance claim but the reality, and the statistics, show that bad things happen to good people and if you don’t have insurance you can’t use it.

We work with our clients to quantify their risk in dollar terms under different scenarios, we then source quotes from multiple insurance providers, determine the best way to fund the premiums from a cashflow perspective and then implement and manage the policies for you.

Whether you have a family and kids, married with no kids or are single with no dependents, you have financial risk should you die, become total and permanent disabled or suffer a serious illness or injury.  Therefore it is critical that you review your personal insurance strategy as part of your overall financial plan.

The path to financial independence starts when you can trap surplus income and start building assets.  And the sooner you start building assets, the sooner you are likely to achieve financial independence.

Most of us have an idea of how much we spend but creating a budget is about creating discipline and giving you a better chance of success.

We can help our clients create a clear, individualised spending plan so that you can keep on top of your finances as well as identify areas that you could save more money or get a better deal. It represents a proactive approach to financing, as it forces you to map out your goals, tracks your spending, before successfully reaching your targets.

If you are in the wealth accumulation phase of life, and once you have the budget in place, we strongly encourage clients to set up a separate bank account from their normal day to day bank account and at the start of each month or when you get paid, have a portion of funds automatically transferred into this separate account.  You will be amazed how quickly this can grow.

The other powerful aspect of a budget and long term cashflow planning is then you know how much you can spend on a weekly/monthly basis “guilt free” and still achieve all your goals.

Debt isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you have a clear understanding of what it is for, the cash flow needs of repaying the debt and have personal insurance in place.  In conjunction with the Pinnacle Road Finance team, we can help you structure and manage your debt to maximise your return and minimise your risk.

Another critical area of a holistic financial plan is making sure you have a comprehensive Estate Plan in place.  While we are not lawyers and therefore can’t write your Estate Plan, we can refer you to an expert and help you through the process.

 

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Our office is located in South Yarra. We are mobile based and come to you anywhere, any day, anytime.

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