Our Thinking
Financial Planning
We believe that the true goal of financial planning is to help our clients get the most out of their day-to-day lives through greater confidence in their financial future. We work with our clients to define goals that are realistic and appropriate to their personal circumstances, along with a plan for achieving those goals.
Getting to know our clients well is important to us. We want to ensure that our clients fully understand their financial plans and are confident that they are on track to achieve their goals. Most importantly, we maintain regular communication with our clients in order to help them monitor progress and avoid mistakes that could prove costly in the future.
A well structured plan provides our clients with the sense of purpose and confidence to cope with investment market cycles. Markets have always been driven by fear and greed and we believe that, as long as humans are in charge, they always will. It is these emotions that ultimately lead to poor investment decisions but also create opportunities for the disciplined investor.
Finally, while we do not advocate aggressive tax planning strategies, we believe that everyone is entitled to take advantage of the savings available under the prevailing tax laws. Small savings in tax can make significant differences to investment returns and we seek to ensure that our clients are making best use of superannuation, trust and company structures.
Investment Management
We believe that investment markets are not always efficient, particularly over short to medium term time horizons where market prices are often driven by sentiment rather than fundamental values. It follows, therefore, that superior investment performance can be achieved through the disciplined use of long-term investment strategies. We use three primary investment strategies.
Dynamic Asset Allocation
A client’s overall asset allocation is set according to their personal risk profile and financial goals but allocations to sub-asset classes are periodically adjusted in accordance with market conditions. Exposure to sub-asset classes is managed through a combination of passive and active instruments.
Managed Funds
Given that the many funds fail to outperform their benchmarks on a consistent basis, we carefully screen the market for high quality fund managers that bring demonstrated expertise in specific sectors or investment styles. We have a preference for fund managers focusing on under-researched market segments that offer more mis-pricing opportunities.
Direct Share Portfolios
All of our direct share investments are governed by one fundamental rule – ‘Only buy great companies at good prices or good companies at great prices’. We start from a mindset that the market offers no gifts and that most securities are appropriately priced relative to their risk/return profile and the overall market. We constantly scan the market to identify quality companies that meet our investment criteria but only act when the market presents an opportunity to buy at a compelling price.
Performance and Fees
Our aim is to improve our clients’ financial position through a combination of improved investment returns, reduced investment fees and tax savings. We strive to achieve these financial improvements while maintaining or even reducing their level of investment risk.
The benefits of sound financial planning and investing are significant. For example, a 2.5% per annum improvement in overall performance over 30 years will double the amount of money available in retirement.
Advisor fees can impact the overall investment return and we therefore set our fees according to the value we add to our clients' portfolios. Our rates are amongst the most competitive in the market.