A list of services and products offered by Streamline Financial Planning
Here’s an update on the latest sharemarket and bond market moves over the weekend.
Just to add a bit of context to flashy media reports… Your own investment strategy may include more or less exposure to share and bond markets. This update is a very generic look at some of the issues driving news headlines on money and finance today.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/michaels-musings/when-markets-fall/1716927548328798/
End of Financial Year planning involves stopping for a moment and considering whether your financial affairs are in order and then taking action to ensure you gain maximum impact for your savings and investment dollars. A continually evolving mix of laws and regulations caused by annual Federal Budget changes adds a zest of uncertainty to the mix.
Some people don’t even notice the end of financial year planning strategies and ideas that populate the investment world – but for those seeking to maximise the value of their incomes, expenditure and savings, time spent on end of financial year planning is time well spent. For others, it’s a great time to line up for bargains as retail stores and businesses do their best to maximise their own end of financial year planning!
Everyone will have their own preferences and ideas on maximising the remaining time before the end of financial year arrives on the 30th June (which this year falls on a Thursday, so you will need to check the close-off dates for any end of financial year planning you may have in mind..). There really is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to planning the best outcomes, so it’s a matter of taking stock of your current financial position, your capacity for savings and/or investment, your costs and expenses that relate to taxation and trying to pin all of that together into something closely resembling a plan.
Some of the most effective strategies for end of financial year planning are also the most straight-forward, such as making sure income-earning accounts are in the name of the lowest bracket taxpayer. For couples that usually means holding larger pools of interest or income earning assets in the name of the lowest earner. There naturally are all sorts of caveats to even this basic idea – but that is where professional advice from your Accountant can really help make a difference.
Another commonly overlooked area is share investment franking credits, which many retirees fail to claim as they don’t submit annual tax returns. Again, there are this or that caveats that will make this applicable to you or not, so it’s a matter for good personal research or professional advice.
In our business, our financial planner advisers work with clients’ Accountants to help provide information and feedback on areas that may impact taxation planning.
Superannuation can be a ridiculously complex area – but don’t be put off. There is a huge raft of information available for those who want to Do-It-Yourself, with the Australian Taxation Office website being full of pertinent and useful examples and information. It’s a great starting point. As is the MoneySmart website, which is a consumer information website maintained by the industry regulator – the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”).
The 30th June 2017 is very important for superannuation accounts, with a range of thresholds and changes occurring from that date. Every newspaper and financial update in the land will be talking tax and super and dates and thresholds over the coming 2 months so the purpose of this note isn’t to list strategies but simply to prod you to make a time to sit and review your plans and position to make sure you take advantage of the end of financial year strategies and planning that might be of benefit to you.
Some people will have their plans and strategies perfectly set up and arranged to the best that research and quality professional advice can suggest. For everyone else, now is the time to take action and ensure your long term planning and strategies are working to your best advantage today.
This post is the latest update for existing and prospective clients of WSP Pty Ltd on changes to the licence through which we provide financial planning services and advice. This change has been some time in the making, so for clarity here is a brief note on what is changing, and a review of our story so far.
As of the end of April, we will no longer be licenced with RI Advice Group Pty Ltd. For those not familiar with the licence arrangements, RI Advice Group is owned by OnePath which is in turn owned by ANZ. WSP Pty Ltd and its advisers have operated under RI Advice Group’s licence since July 2013. This will change as of the April 2017.
You may have read an earlier update (September 2016), which covered some of the reasons we were looking to move our licence away from RI Advice Group. If not, you can read the post here.
From the end of April, our licence to provide financial services and advice, will be held under the Australian Financial Services Licence (“AFSL”) of:
Australian Financial Directions Pty Ltd, Licence No 344971 ABN 14 135 004 947.
You can visit the website of Australian Financial Directions here.
When you visit our offices or see our advisers after April 2017, you will be provided with appropriate updates on WSP’s Financial Services Guide (“FSG”) and associated documentation that will reflect the Australian Financial Directions licence.
From the end of April 2017 RI Advice Group Pty Ltd will no longer be responsible for the ongoing advice provided by WSP and its advisers. From that date, Australian Financial Directions (“AFD”) will be responsible for the advice provided by WSP and its advisers.
You will continue to receive the same services and level of advice from WSP Pty Ltd and its advisers. Your existing strategies, plans, policies, accounts and servicing advisers will remain as they currently are. You will continue to meet with, discuss and correspond with the adviser you have been used to dealing with – John Claessen, Simon Tomkinson, Kerry Franklin, Tania Petrilli or Michael O’Hara or Streamline Financial Planning as a corporate authorised representative.
If you have any concerns or questions about the change, please simply raise these with your adviser.
If you would like to find out more details about the specific licences involved, you are able to do a search of the professional registers on the website of ASIC – the Australian Securities & Investments Commission at www.asic.gov.au. If you wish to look for details of RI Advice Group or AFD then search under “professional registers”/ “Australian Financial Services Licencee”. If you wish to look for details of our advisers, search under “professional registers”/ “Australian Financial Services Authorised Representative”. Alternatively, you could go to the government website www.moneysmart.gov.au and click on the link “Investing”. There you will find a long list of titles with information on financial planning and dealing with financial planners – including a link to the national register of financial planners, which includes education and experience histories for all registered financial planners in Australia today.
WSP Pty Ltd and its advisers have operated in financial planning services for many years. For those who may not be familiar with our business background, here is a brief overview of the years since our founding in 1996.
WSP Pty Ltd is the holding company operating under two business names:
Our business evolved from a merger of 4 partners on the 1st July 1996. The original partners were:
The expanded business operated under the business name Wealth & Security Planners, which was first registered by Michael O’Hara on the 26th May 1994.
As the business grew, the partners considered obtaining a “Dealer’s Licence” to provide financial advice and services that were not tied to any particular institution or product. In 1997 WSP moved to its own licence. Over time, other financial planning businesses were merged into our operations, while the founding advisers concentrated on providing holistic financial planning services and advice to an ever-expanding group of clients.
Kerry Franklin joined WSP in 2000, bringing into the business a wealth of credit and lending experience and knowledge and expanding our range of business services.
Over time, the directors of WSP moved with changes demanded by clients, legislation and in order to prepare for proposed financial planning changes, established Streamline Financial Planning in the year 2003. As the name suggests, this part of the business offered a streamlined set of services and advice for those clients who held traditional and legacy policies for insurance, superannuation and investment. Wealth & Security Planners continued to offer a highly personalised planning service for those seeking a higher level of ongoing support and advice.
The introduction of many changes to financial planning through the “Future of Financial Advice” (“FOFA”) reforms saw the directors of WSP decide to leave their own licence and in July 2013 moved the WSP business under the licence of a larger financial planning group – specifically RI Advice Group Pty Ltd, which is owned by OnePath, which is in turn owned by ANZ.
Over time, it became clear that our business focus and direction was not aligned with that of RI Advice Group and the ANZ, and a mutual decision was made to move our licence to another licence provider. That was in November 2015. Business procedures and legislative changes impacting bank-aligned businesses held up the licence change a number of times. However, in 2017 these hurdles were overcome and WSP Pty Ltd was finally in a position to move forward towards our longer term business goals and objectives.
The key objective is the provision of a holistic financial advice based on long term relationships and as broad as possible choice in products, accounts and strategies to help our clients manage their financial planning priorities.
After considering the range of options, including re-applying for our own licence, the decision was made to join Australian Financial Directions. The directors and key people of AFD are known to the directors of WSP Pty Ltd and our future objectives and business priorities are closely aligned.
Here is an update for our existing clients, who received a note from us earlier this year regarding a shift of our authorised representative licences from RI Advice Group Pty Ltd to a Perth-based dealer group under the name of Sentry.
Following a review of our business operations, the directors of WSP Pty Ltd (the holding company for our two business trading names : Streamline Financial Planning and Wealth & Security Planners) had decided to move our financial advice licences to another Australian Financial Services Licence (“AFSL”) holder. Specifically, to move from RI Advice Group Pty Ltd to Sentry Wealth. After a 6 month lead-in preparation period leading up to May this year, our corporate and individual adviser licences were ready to move to a new dealer group. However, last minute changes within the broader industry put a hold on that transfer. It is now four months later and we are still not able to confirm an actual move as yet. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It appears that most of the steps have been worked through, and it is the expectation of the directors of WSP Pty Ltd that a clear direction should be available by the end of the year.
For the purposes of being clear – there has been no change in the licencing so far. That means there is no change to our dealings with you, and we continue to help our clients day-to-day in sorting out their financial plans. Once we have some clarity and direction for these business changes we will again be in contact to confirm any new details we may have. It’s far less than ideal but that’s an outcome of a financial planning world that is undergoing immense change. The changes are for the most part positive, and the intent is that the general public can have more confidence in the advice they are receiving.
Our business held its own financial planning licence (called a “dealer’s licence”) for many years, until we made the decision to move to a larger licence – RI Advice Group Pty Ltd. While this change has been beneficial, it became clear that our long term business aims were not really aligned with those of the larger institutional dealers. After consulting with RI Advice, the decision was made to move to another licence – and from our business point of view, ideally one that was not aligned with the larger institutions as our focus and priority is likely to differ from that of a large institution.
Your adviser continues to be available for information, services, advice and help with your strategies and where applicable, various accounts.
There is no change to any policies or accounts you may hold with any one or more of the various companies that we deal with on your behalf.
The change in ‘dealer’ or AFSL holder is mainly a back-office change. Once upon a time this was not the case. Large institutions severely limited the ability of their advisers to provide advice and services to anything other than that particular institutions’ policies or accounts. This was a cause of much bias and led to perceptions of bias – even if this were not actually the case. This has been changed to a large extent, and more recent legislation has enshrined the idea of “client best interest” in the provision of personal financial advice. However, there remain substantial differences for your financial planner when making the decision of which licence to operate under, and these differences can lead to changes in where a financial planning licence should be held – asis the case with our business.
If there is any aspect of this that concerns you then please simply call our offices and speak to your adviser who will be able to clarify any difficulties you may have.
You may have noticed that your insurance renewal premiums have shown large jumps over the past few years. Some of this may be a simple case of premiums increasing with age – which is a basic fact of life. However, sometimes the changes may relate to company or policy specific issues and there may be options available to you. At the least, it may be worthwhile working through the basics of your insurance cover to see that you are getting the best value for money that you can.
Care must be taken when changing insurance policies, as there would be medical questions to answer and health may stop you being able to obtain a better deal that the policy you currently have. Again, it’s a matter of looking at the options and seeing what, if any, may be suitable to your insurance needs and hip-pocket.
Insurance companies have been fairly busy with trying to be innovative with their insurance policies, and competition is fairly strong in the marketplace. So it’s a good time to double-check your accounts, while being careful to ensure you do not lose out on existing cover or options.
Tania can help provide you with a range of premiums from a range of companies. To get to that stage, Tania would help you work through some basic paperwork and then it’s down to some serious research and comparisons.
In a client survey sent our in February, we asked for thoughts and comment on “social media” and Streamline Financial Planning and social media tools could be of help – if any at all?
We received feedback that suggested that the issue of “social media” can be a divisive one. While some people did not like businesses to use social media at all, there were just as many people who said that they would like more contact, and their preferred form of contact was via social media. Such a conundrum!
The figures were interesting – while 49% of respondents did not like the use of computers and social media, a full 48% did. This suggests that there is room for social media as a communication tool for advisers and clients but that this is very much an individual decision. As such, Streamline Financial Planning will be conducting follow-up surveys and making client contact to determine individual preferences. This will ensure that we deliver information, news and points of interest in the most efficient manner possible, and directly to the people who most want it.
In a fast changing world, technology can rapidly destroy long-cherished ideas and thoughts while simultaneously offering new and exciting ways of communicating and being more productive. The term “social media” actually refers to a whole host of different software applications and programs. Examples would include :
We were fascinated by the response to this question in our survey. Of those who use social media and wanted us to put more effort into this area, 100% of respondents suggested Facebook as their preferred vehicle. How’s that for a resounding vote of confidence in a service?!
Streamline already has a Facebook page through its parent – WSP Pty Ltd. The Facebook page can be found here.
Sometimes you just want one job finished and out of the way, so you can get on with your life. Whether it be selling an old parcel of shares or sorting out your super, we won’t bog you down trying to sell you a full financial plan. You tell us what you want achieved, and we will tell you what it will cost to get the job done. Simple as that.
It doesn’t have to be as hard as it sounds. We provide straight-forward, understandable recommendations that make sense. Our focus is on helping you achieve your outcomes, and we use highly sophisticated processes to reach that end – it’s just that we see our job as simplifying your finances, not making them harder. Our knowledge and experience allows us to bring common sense and plain English to your financial world.