Excellent 'advice' thank you Bec. This conundrum had been bothering me for some time. I have a house and super from downsizing but not enough to warrant $2000+ annual financial advisor support and to be honest other than managing investment already in the super fund I understood most of what was required. It was just timing and what I might be entitled to from aged pension etc. all explained in your Wonderful epic retirement but just needing a little more explanation for ME. So I booked in with a great financial services consultant at Centrelink. Free, and we worked through MY life, times, situation and he was great. He even told me that it would be beneficial to close my company and become a sole trader before retiring as it is much less complex and I would receive the pension more quickly, especially if I wasn't really going to be operating the company going forward. He explained the benefit of continuing to do some work and the Work Bonus and more. I now feel confident that when I reach 67 next year I will be in a good position to live an Epic Retirement. Thanks
About to retire and sought advice from 2 different advisors and got this exact scenario! Independant advisor - go with my "wrap product" platform; Superannuation fund advisor - go with our fund. While both adequately explained reasoning etc I didn't feel either were entirely without bias. What's missing is that third type of advice you describe, a strategic direction, and at a much more realistic cost as well. And on a related, the dense complicated 'advice' documents I received could be much better communicated in simple language and more visuals!
This resonated strongly!!! I have paid for advice, where I specifically stated I do not want a wrap product - have been bitten there before, and it's not what I need, nor the Q I'm asking - and yet $2k later that's still what was presented to me. I spoke with my super fund's adviser and he was helpful but couldn't go as deep as I needed, but at least reinforced I'm doing a great job following my own 'advice'. For now I continue to be my own financial adviser, filling in that gap for myself.
Exactly Bec, thanks and well said! We carefully interviewed and chose a recommended FA, seeking a strategy / planning document. All we got was a ‘plan’ that effectively said ‘’move all your money to us”, with no detail of historical returns, just their fees which were so much more than were already paying in our industry Funds. We asked them to explain how their ‘plan’ was anything more than an expensive sales pitch. They couldn’t, and we refused to pay their $3K+ fee.
Got a tax planning strategy from the Accountant, but languishing on the other half of the equation planning for retirement. It actually a disgrace that the industry has such a shortcoming. Thank you for shaking them up on all our behalf’s!
This head the nail on the head. My husband and I won’t have so much money that we need ongoing, expensive, annual management but would love some input into where we currently sit (in our mid fifties) and whether our ‘plan’ to retire at 60 is feasible and realistic. Thanks for the confirmation that one size does not always fit all
Finding a great advisor is like looking for love. Sometimes you meet some duds before finding a suitable match.
We had an advisor that I didn’t feel comfortable with, I couldn’t put my finger on what wasn’t right and persevered for a couple of years. My husband has always left most of the financial decisions with me and to date I have done a reasonable job. Anyway I dragged my husband along to an appointment - his response was “he’s a dill” (that was the polite version).
A couple of years ago I was given the name of another advisor so I thought well now is the time to give him a call.
From the very first call I felt comfortable, he asked all ‘the right questions’ he asked what we wanted.
Now my husband comes to the appointments with me and we both feel comfortable for the future. We probably won’t be eligible for the pension so now I need to get comfortable with spending what we have worked so hard to build up.
Thanks Bec for providing valuable insights and conversation starters.
as an adviser I often move funds but not to charge a fee and get them under management. It is very hard to run a business efficiently if your clients are spread across many different super funds. they all have different systems and processes and industry funds in particular are very hard to deal with as their admin systems are outdated and many functions can’t be done electronically. clients want us to do the paperwork not do it themselves. I’ve tried it the way you are talking about, doesn’t work. it’s a dream we all start with and then give up on in frustration
Excellent advice. My experience with a financial advisor was exactly that. As an SMSF holder, the best thing I ever did was buy a superguide membership and educate myself on the rules & strategies & to keep on top of changes. Together with a reliable SMSF accountant & a little help from ChatGPT, have managed quite well. However, whilst it works in my 60s and maybe even my 70s, can foresee a time I will need a financial advisor to take over.
Hi Bec, This article would not have come at a better time. I responded to someone on another page asking if they could retire and because the scenario was similar to myself my opinion was Yes. I did however tell this person to seek Financial advice which a few hours later I regretted. I was thinking about everything you just wrote about and realised they could fall victim to one of these scams. I am so glad that 4 years ago I found a great guy who even though I am paying an on going fee keeps me out of harms way, on track and stops me from making stupid decisions. My returns are also very good so it’s a win,win. Sadly not everyone has that luxury. Thanks for such a great group full of wonderful information.
It’s a fairly simple thing…. Both parties want the best ROI…. Return on investment.
The advisory wants the best return the time that invest or get a more lucrative client! Hence they avoid low value low return clients that are either too difficult/ challenging or those who’s FUM isn’t high enough.
The client wants the highest financial returns on the funds managed/invested.
One of the other OPs said it well…. Ppl need to educate themselves as best they can and attempt to define the questions they want the professional answers to. The broader the question the easier it is for the FA entity to slip in to the use our platform mantra.
Lord Acton’s dictum… knowledge is power etc etc, empower yourself or you open yourself up to be manipulated into an unnecessary product or platform. I went out and di a grad dip in financial planning ( a little OTT) then also sort FA advice (my needs are a bit challenging) and had the advisor try to send me down the cookie cutter pathway, but I needed to sign up first….$2k for the initial assessment etc etc, max $6k.
Self education is the best pathway forward, read Noel’s books, book and see the Centrelink FISO, prepare a realistic budget, work through the govt www.moneysmart.gov.au website. Talk to your friends and share information, and remember…. Every day is a school day!
This is spot on! We are a self employed couple with an SMSF we’ve been managing ourselves. After one conversation with a financial adviser, I realised that knowing all the rules around accessing our super is where we need to start. We’re happy with how we’ve managed it so far and would like to keep it that way if possible. Paying thousands of dollars that would include a complete restructuring of our SMSF is not appealing. It’s challenging to say the least!
I have faced this problem. I've educated myself to the best of my ability and now feel fairly confident managing our SMSF. I think If I wanted advice, I'd turn to AI, with the understanding that it too is fallible.
Fantastic insights and the comments below echo why I'm hesitant to go down that FA pathway. All 3 I have consulted have a bias to push you to either a super platform or a packaged investment strategy or sign up for a monthly reoccurring fee.
Once upon a time (over forty years ago) our accountant said "you make profits and I will protect your financial growth". We never doubted his integrity and each time he said " if I were you I'd...." we didn't hesitate to act on his advice. Costs for his creative accounting strategies and sound investment advice were negligible when compared to returns.
Fast forward to 2026, the above-mentioned guru has long simce retired and I recently asked my current accountant if they or anyone else in their practice could advise us regarding possible pitfalls associated with our current retirement investment strategies. Their immediate response was that NO, they had zero interest in offering advice and that unfortunately they couldn't recommend anyone that might for the exact reasons mentioned in Bec's article. Most would want a WRAP investment and therefore no recommendations were forthcoming.
There appears to be a significant market out there for those that might offer independent advice, fear of litigation probably makes the concept unattractive so we need to educate ourselves and hopefully not learn from our own expensive mistakes.
Excellent 'advice' thank you Bec. This conundrum had been bothering me for some time. I have a house and super from downsizing but not enough to warrant $2000+ annual financial advisor support and to be honest other than managing investment already in the super fund I understood most of what was required. It was just timing and what I might be entitled to from aged pension etc. all explained in your Wonderful epic retirement but just needing a little more explanation for ME. So I booked in with a great financial services consultant at Centrelink. Free, and we worked through MY life, times, situation and he was great. He even told me that it would be beneficial to close my company and become a sole trader before retiring as it is much less complex and I would receive the pension more quickly, especially if I wasn't really going to be operating the company going forward. He explained the benefit of continuing to do some work and the Work Bonus and more. I now feel confident that when I reach 67 next year I will be in a good position to live an Epic Retirement. Thanks
About to retire and sought advice from 2 different advisors and got this exact scenario! Independant advisor - go with my "wrap product" platform; Superannuation fund advisor - go with our fund. While both adequately explained reasoning etc I didn't feel either were entirely without bias. What's missing is that third type of advice you describe, a strategic direction, and at a much more realistic cost as well. And on a related, the dense complicated 'advice' documents I received could be much better communicated in simple language and more visuals!
This resonated strongly!!! I have paid for advice, where I specifically stated I do not want a wrap product - have been bitten there before, and it's not what I need, nor the Q I'm asking - and yet $2k later that's still what was presented to me. I spoke with my super fund's adviser and he was helpful but couldn't go as deep as I needed, but at least reinforced I'm doing a great job following my own 'advice'. For now I continue to be my own financial adviser, filling in that gap for myself.
Exactly Bec, thanks and well said! We carefully interviewed and chose a recommended FA, seeking a strategy / planning document. All we got was a ‘plan’ that effectively said ‘’move all your money to us”, with no detail of historical returns, just their fees which were so much more than were already paying in our industry Funds. We asked them to explain how their ‘plan’ was anything more than an expensive sales pitch. They couldn’t, and we refused to pay their $3K+ fee.
Got a tax planning strategy from the Accountant, but languishing on the other half of the equation planning for retirement. It actually a disgrace that the industry has such a shortcoming. Thank you for shaking them up on all our behalf’s!
i asked chat GPT because my fund does not provide advice and my accountants were going to charge me $3300.
This head the nail on the head. My husband and I won’t have so much money that we need ongoing, expensive, annual management but would love some input into where we currently sit (in our mid fifties) and whether our ‘plan’ to retire at 60 is feasible and realistic. Thanks for the confirmation that one size does not always fit all
Finding a great advisor is like looking for love. Sometimes you meet some duds before finding a suitable match.
We had an advisor that I didn’t feel comfortable with, I couldn’t put my finger on what wasn’t right and persevered for a couple of years. My husband has always left most of the financial decisions with me and to date I have done a reasonable job. Anyway I dragged my husband along to an appointment - his response was “he’s a dill” (that was the polite version).
A couple of years ago I was given the name of another advisor so I thought well now is the time to give him a call.
From the very first call I felt comfortable, he asked all ‘the right questions’ he asked what we wanted.
Now my husband comes to the appointments with me and we both feel comfortable for the future. We probably won’t be eligible for the pension so now I need to get comfortable with spending what we have worked so hard to build up.
Thanks Bec for providing valuable insights and conversation starters.
as an adviser I often move funds but not to charge a fee and get them under management. It is very hard to run a business efficiently if your clients are spread across many different super funds. they all have different systems and processes and industry funds in particular are very hard to deal with as their admin systems are outdated and many functions can’t be done electronically. clients want us to do the paperwork not do it themselves. I’ve tried it the way you are talking about, doesn’t work. it’s a dream we all start with and then give up on in frustration
Excellent advice. My experience with a financial advisor was exactly that. As an SMSF holder, the best thing I ever did was buy a superguide membership and educate myself on the rules & strategies & to keep on top of changes. Together with a reliable SMSF accountant & a little help from ChatGPT, have managed quite well. However, whilst it works in my 60s and maybe even my 70s, can foresee a time I will need a financial advisor to take over.
Totally agree, there’s a band of people that sit in the middle, wanting to retire before 67 and have limited funds.
Hi Bec, This article would not have come at a better time. I responded to someone on another page asking if they could retire and because the scenario was similar to myself my opinion was Yes. I did however tell this person to seek Financial advice which a few hours later I regretted. I was thinking about everything you just wrote about and realised they could fall victim to one of these scams. I am so glad that 4 years ago I found a great guy who even though I am paying an on going fee keeps me out of harms way, on track and stops me from making stupid decisions. My returns are also very good so it’s a win,win. Sadly not everyone has that luxury. Thanks for such a great group full of wonderful information.
It’s a fairly simple thing…. Both parties want the best ROI…. Return on investment.
The advisory wants the best return the time that invest or get a more lucrative client! Hence they avoid low value low return clients that are either too difficult/ challenging or those who’s FUM isn’t high enough.
The client wants the highest financial returns on the funds managed/invested.
One of the other OPs said it well…. Ppl need to educate themselves as best they can and attempt to define the questions they want the professional answers to. The broader the question the easier it is for the FA entity to slip in to the use our platform mantra.
Lord Acton’s dictum… knowledge is power etc etc, empower yourself or you open yourself up to be manipulated into an unnecessary product or platform. I went out and di a grad dip in financial planning ( a little OTT) then also sort FA advice (my needs are a bit challenging) and had the advisor try to send me down the cookie cutter pathway, but I needed to sign up first….$2k for the initial assessment etc etc, max $6k.
Self education is the best pathway forward, read Noel’s books, book and see the Centrelink FISO, prepare a realistic budget, work through the govt www.moneysmart.gov.au website. Talk to your friends and share information, and remember…. Every day is a school day!
This is spot on! We are a self employed couple with an SMSF we’ve been managing ourselves. After one conversation with a financial adviser, I realised that knowing all the rules around accessing our super is where we need to start. We’re happy with how we’ve managed it so far and would like to keep it that way if possible. Paying thousands of dollars that would include a complete restructuring of our SMSF is not appealing. It’s challenging to say the least!
I have faced this problem. I've educated myself to the best of my ability and now feel fairly confident managing our SMSF. I think If I wanted advice, I'd turn to AI, with the understanding that it too is fallible.
Fantastic insights and the comments below echo why I'm hesitant to go down that FA pathway. All 3 I have consulted have a bias to push you to either a super platform or a packaged investment strategy or sign up for a monthly reoccurring fee.
Once upon a time (over forty years ago) our accountant said "you make profits and I will protect your financial growth". We never doubted his integrity and each time he said " if I were you I'd...." we didn't hesitate to act on his advice. Costs for his creative accounting strategies and sound investment advice were negligible when compared to returns.
Fast forward to 2026, the above-mentioned guru has long simce retired and I recently asked my current accountant if they or anyone else in their practice could advise us regarding possible pitfalls associated with our current retirement investment strategies. Their immediate response was that NO, they had zero interest in offering advice and that unfortunately they couldn't recommend anyone that might for the exact reasons mentioned in Bec's article. Most would want a WRAP investment and therefore no recommendations were forthcoming.
There appears to be a significant market out there for those that might offer independent advice, fear of litigation probably makes the concept unattractive so we need to educate ourselves and hopefully not learn from our own expensive mistakes.