Hard Questions
you should ask your financial planner
(and some you should definitely ask yourself)Working with a financial planner is an important step in anybody’s financial journey.
It’s the key, in fact, to taking your wealth further and enabling you to do the things that are important to you.
That’s why we do everything we can to help you and financial planners to get the maximum value out of the financial planning process.
Including encouraging you to have useful, no-holds-barred conversations with your financial planner.
What is a Hard Question?
A question that confronts biases and norms that are prevalent in our industry. Questions that others are afraid to ask or answer.
Here you’ll find important questions, as well as some interesting – and in some cases controversial – points of view from people who’ve been creating wealth for decades.
We hope it makes for interesting reading and prompts richer financial conversations in every sense.
1
Do you think I'm tripping myself up?
An investor needs to learn to manage their emotions. Feeling nervous when investment values drop or anxious when you realise you’ve missed out on a big investment opportunity are normal emotional responses. The trick is not to respond to these feelings with a knee jerk decision. That’s why our team of financial planning coaches train financial planners to understand and recognise these behaviours.
We have developed an advice framework called Integrated Wealth Planning. This lifestyle financial planning process is designed to work through these layers with you. Your financial planner can be your voice of reason and take the emotion out of the moment. This means that together, you can co-create a financial plan underpinned by your lifestyle and financial goals. Not your emotions.
Integrated Wealth Planning takes you on a journey from where you are now to where you want to be, managing your emotions along the way.
This approach:
1
Lifestyle
Understanding who you are and your ideal lifestyle, including your hopes, fears and future goals is at the core of your financial plan.
2
Return
Once we understand your desired lifestyle, it's then possible to calculate the returns required to attain and sustain it.
3
Asset Allocation
Your required investment return will help us to determine what asset allocation (and what associated risks) will best suit your investment strategy.
4
Risk
When you understand the risks you need and can afford to take, and the risks you’re willing to take, you’re able to make rational investment decisions.
Past experiences and individual motivations guides all our behaviour
FIND OUT MORE...
download
Coaching: An integral part of our advice process
podcast
Do you think I'm tripping myself up?
video
Integrated Wealth Planning: A bias-free solution
Learn how you can partner with us to help grow your business.
2
Is financial planning worth paying for?
Every day, we make decisions about our money. We decide to spend or to save. Where to invest and when to reap the returns.
So why should we pay a financial planner?
We believe that true wealth is about much more than your money; it’s about living the life you want, and having the means to achieve it. A financial planner is an essential partner on your wealth journey. By guiding you through changes in your life and the world around you, and evolving your investment strategies to suit your priorities, a financial planner can help you grow, leverage, transfer and protect your wealth.
Five reasons it’s worth paying for financial planning (in order of importance).
1
They’re not just a financial planner, they’re also your financial coach
We all need someone to guide us forward and keep us focused on our financial goals, motivating and inspiring us along the way.
2
They are there to simplify things
They take the complexity out of money and planning, helping us reach our financial decisions promptly and with certainty.
3
They keep us from making mistakes in times when we are over emotional
When the markets are in turmoil, it’s easy to let your emotions get the better of you. Your financial planner can be your voice of reason in times like these.
4
They act as an accountability partner
Your financial planner helps you see what actions are required to achieve your financial goals, and helps you get back on track when things go wrong.
5
They help us to see the wood from the trees
With so many investment options out there, your financial planner can help you avoid distraction by focusing on the best investment options for you.
Worth paying for? We think so.
We, ultimately, make the decisions about where to invest our money and when to reap that investment.
FIND OUT MORE...
video
Is financial planning worth paying for
podcast
Is financial planning worth paying for?
Learn how you can partner with us to help grow your business.
3
Does your 'fear of flying' affect me?
Understanding your own personal biases is an important part of financial planning. We know that an underlying fear or insecurity can easily lead to bad decisions. But what about your planner’s biases?
Just how unbiased is your planner? Do they let their own personal experiences influence their investment choices?
At Old Mutual Wealth, our team of financial planning coaches help financial planners understand these biases, both in their clients and in themselves. A skilled planner learns to understand how these can affect important financial decisions and will be equipped to guide you through them, ensuring that every investment choice you make is built on solid financial advice.An underlying fear or insecurity can make you overly risk averse...
FIND OUT MORE...
download
What could get in the way when planners advise you?
podcast
Does your 'fear of flying' affect me?
video
Does your fear of flying affect me?
Learn how you can partner with us to help grow your business.
4
What happens if you go before I do?
What happens to all your personal and financial information when they’re gone?
You never know how long your financial planner will be around. After all, they’re only human and even if they stay healthy, they may emigrate, change careers or eventually retire. With their constant advice and support when we need it, we often forget that they have their own futures to worry about too.
So where does that leave you?
Here’s some key considerations for the future:
1
Your personal and financial information
Your planner is required to have a documented plan that governs the handover of your personal and financial information to a registered professional who will take over from him or her.
2
Your planner’s successor
Has your planner discussed exactly who will be filling his or her shoes and are you sure that this person is a good fit for you? If not, where will you go for financial advice in the future?
3
Fees
What happens if a new planner charges more for the same service that you’re getting right now? What if the service is not the same at all?
At Old Mutual Wealth, we work closely with financial planners to ensure that we are there to support their clients’ unique needs, when they no longer can. This is managed through a documented succession plan and client transfer process to ensure business continuity and minimum disruption to clients.
FIND OUT MORE...
download
What happens if you go before I go?
podcast
What happens if you go before I do?
video
What happens if you go before I do
Learn how you can partner with us to help grow your business.
Take your wealth further
Making the most of your wealth is an important part of life. It’s a way to fund experiences, maintain your lifestlye and help you enjoy treasured moments. Our priority is to grow, leverage, protect and ultimately transfer your wealth so that you can do just that.
That’s why your relationship with your financial planner is so important. At Old Mutual Wealth, we work with financial planners that understand this and partner with you on your financial journey, helping you make the right choices along the way. If you don’t have a financial planner yet, choosing one may well be the most important step you take.
Contact us to put you in touch with a financial planner.
Visit Old Mutual Wealth's website for more information about financial products and services
Learn how you can partner with us to help grow your business.