Are you getting the attention and respect you deserve from your financial planner?
The big banks seem to be getting out of the business of providing financial advice. After the shocking revelations of the Banking Royal Commission earlier this year, ANZ and Westpac have already reduced or shut their financial planning departments. NAB and Commonwealth are diverting all their efforts into re-mediating clients before assessing their response. AMP have plans to drastically reduce their adviser numbers.
The practise of leveraging their position of trust to use their advisers to funnel money into their own in-house insurance, super and pension products has been called out and laid bare. The damage to their reputations from the revelations that they’ve been charging ongoing service fees and often not providing ongoing service has been immense. The so called ‘fees for no service’ saga. Banks are paying clients back hundreds of millions of dollars and totally rethinking their involvement in providing financial advice.
It’s a highly personalised, long-term partnership required on the journey towards financial freedom and an independent retirement. Something best undertaken with a small business where the staff are long term and the relationship is personal. The big institutions should be the ones providing the actual products and handling the money, as that is where their size does matter.
Eclipse Financial Services was founded back in 2003 by experienced bank financial advisers who could see the writing on the wall even back then. Founder Justin Butler quoted ‘No matter how many existing clients I had; the bank just wanted more new clients every year?’. Eclipse was founded on the ethos of respecting client’s decisions to allow us to guide them through their financial lives and having a broad choice of well-respected product providers to select from as required. We have three experienced, committed advisers working with clients from our offices in Brisbane City and Coomera in South East Queensland as well as Bowen, Proserpine and Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays.
We pride ourselves on keeping in touch and regularly sitting down with clients one on one to review their progress toward their goals.
World investment markets are riding all-time highs and tensions are building around trade wars and geopolitical issues. We are working with clients to ensure their portfolios are protected should markets fall. You can read more in our paper ‘How do I protect myself against market crashes in retirement?’. Now is certainly too risky a time to not be getting experienced financial advice.
If you don’t think you’re getting the attention and respect you deserve, contact us for a cost and obligation free review of your existing situation and plans.
