Real Value of Advice (from a Financial Planner)
Measuring the value of advice from a financial planner.
The real value of advice from a financial planner has been made easier to gauge. Financial Planners are required to issue a Fee Disclosure Statement (FDS) to each serviced client. In this context a ‘serviced’ client is anyone in respect of whom that planner receives income from any source.
The FDS comes as a report to clients about:
- the services actually provided by/ through the financial planner,
- the fees received by the planner for those services.; and
- the services that were intended to be provided to that client for that reporting period.
There may be a perceived gap for some, between cost of a service and its real value. The FDS makes the measure clearer, and more transparent. (Our website article library includes this article on the value of financial planning advice for ContinuumFP clients.)
More about the FDS requirement.
Over a three-year period leading up to 2016, significant reforms were made to the regulatory monitoring of investment services. These reforms brought changes to the practices and processes of the financial planning industry. They were prescribed in legislation and/ or introduced by regulation. One of the changes is the annual Fee Disclosure Statement.
[Note: since the requirement came into effect Continuum Financial Planners Pty Ltd has issued the required FDSs on time, with all agreed services having been delivered – in many cases at a higher level of frequency than the agreed minimum. All of our clients with Ongoing Service Packages receive FDSs regardless of when they commenced.]
In the FDS, financial planners are required to restate the services that were agreed to; disclose the extent to which those services have been delivered; and also state the amount of the fee that was paid for the range of services agreed, during the twelve months up to the preparation of the report. The Regulator (ASIC) has changed the emphasis of this annual report to clients, to focus on advice services,
We welcome feedback from clients after they have perused the FDS we issue to them: and we also invite discussion as to the satisfaction clients have with the level of service being provided – and what they perceive as value in the services delivered. In this regard we appreciate the many demands on your time, noting that fewer than 5% of clients who receive the FDS call to discuss any aspect of it.
Service models
Continuum Financial Planners Pty Ltd has been a ‘fee for service’ provider of investment services since its inception. We have also ensured that full fee disclosure is made to you on an annual basis – usually in an advice document, but otherwise in portfolio statements. Based on the feedback we get from clients when our established annual practice of reviewing the service package most suited to your needs, we understand that you are generally satisfied with both the quality of the service we deliver – and the real value of advice and services you receive in engaging ContinuumFP.
Experience the value of a ContinuumFP financial planner’s advice
We invite you to engage with us to discuss aspects of the services we provide and how we can best meet your wealth management needs in a professional, personalised way with fair outcomes for all concerned. To arrange a meeting with one of our financial adviser team –
- call our office on 07-3421 3456; or
- at your convenience, use our Book A Meeting facility.
(This article was originally posted in May 2013. The post has been occasionally updated/ refreshed, most recently in August 2024.)
