Financial Advice – If you Must

Cartoon from the most witty and prolific Mark Lynch from toonpool

Slack Investor has long been in the school of “Educate Yourself” in financial matters and maintains this is the best way to do it – But a lot of people (Obviously not Slack Investor readers!) find financial organization very difficult. It is complicated to be across all the intricacies of saving, mortgages, superannuation, taxation, and investment. However, you can draw upon the wisdom of some smart financial bloggers here – Check out the Slack Blogroll – the internet is your friend.

If you must see a financial advisor, after the initial consultation, they will prepare a Statement of Advice – which should be the guiding document for your circumstances and contain a full disclosure of their fees.

According to the Productivity Commission, almost half of Australian adults need financial advice. With the industry coming under criticism for greed and conflicts of interest, it is difficult for consumers to be confident that they are receiving good advice.

from ABC News

Prepare for Layers of Fees

From Youtube

Let’s start with an example provided by ASIC – which I assume reflects typical financial advisor costs. Edward engages a financial planner to get a statement of advice together for his $400000 (including super). The adviser offers to put together a financial plan for $3,500 with a further implementation fee of $1,500. This almost doesn’t sound too bad so far – But, it is instructive to look at the full breakdown of costs below. Platform fees, ongoing advice fees, management fees and insurance premiums will result in poor Edward getting slugged $14000 in the first year and $9000 ongoing per annum. If these costs are typical, this is outrageous – He is paying 3.5% of his wealth initially, and then 2.3% ongoing. The fees can usually be paid separately or deducted from your investment income as part of your annual statement.

Example given by ASIC showing a financial advisor fee structure for the investing of Edwards assets of $400K From ASIC – Financial Advice Costs

The Hayne Royal commission exposed many cases where advisors were conflicted by personal gains (commissions, etc) when giving financial guidance. A lot of the commissions have been banned now, but there are sometimes internal incentives to recommend certain products. I don’t want to besmirch all advisors here, but it makes sense that you would have the best chance of getting good advice if your advisor was truly independent – There aren’t many of these according to ABC news, only about 60 in Australia – All are registered with the Independent Financial Advisers Association of Australia (IFAAA). But even with the independents, be wary of costs.


Cartoon from the equally witty and prolific Randy Glasbergen from source

If you don’t want to take the full responsibility for the nuts and bolts of financial independence onto yourself, I can see real benefits in seeing a knowledgeable fee-for-service financial advisor to set up a one-off tax effective savings structure that will guide you through the mid-thirties through till retirement. Or, it may be wise to get help for specific situations e.g., Self Managed Superannuation strategies.

Where I don’t see value is the too common situation where people front up to the financial planners on the doorstep of retirement with their life savings. There is the potential for an avalanche of fees – as well as the up front costs, each recommended product will have its own management fees.

Alternatives

Naturally, Slack Investor looks to reduce fees where possible. If you don’t want to go it alone along the “full monty” self-education route, there are some cheaper alternatives to the traditional financial advice model emerging. These Robo-Advice structures show promise for some aspects of the financial advisor’s job – How to steadily accumulate wealth and then, how to turn this wealth into an income to support your retirement. It’s new, it’s exciting it’s … Robo, it’s coming next month.

April 2019 – End of Month Update … and, Lets Get Concessional

Slack Investor remains IN for Australian index shares, the US Index S&P 500 and the FTSE 100.  Bumper times this month.

There were rises in all  Slack Investor followed markets (ASX200 +2.9%; FTSE100 +1.3%;  S&P500 +3.9%).  All Index pages and charts  have been updated to reflect the monthly changes – (ASX Index, UK Index, US Index).

Concessional Contributions – Lets Get Concessional!

Thanks Jane … You are inspirational to our financial independence – From deskgram.net

If you are just starting your savings program or getting your house deposit together, then this is another higher order issue to leave alone. If you have got the basics organized and have a good chunk of equity in your house, and looking to boost your super in a tax-effective way – then tune in to this super boost before the end of tax year.

Concessional contributions include your employer’s compulsory super guarantee contribution of 9.5% and any salary sacrifice contributions that you make. They are called “concessional” contributions because they go into your super account from your before-tax income and are taxed at the “concessional” rate of 15% rather than your “marginal” rate. You are not allowed to exceed the $25,000 cap on concessional contributions, so it is important to get your sums right.

For a gross salary of $90,000, your employer pays the 9.5% super guarantee of $8,550 to your nominated super fund. That means you have up to $16,450 ($25,000 -$8,550) left on your cap to concessionally contribute to super before June 30 – to save on tax and boost super.

Salaried workers can concessionally contribute by using salary sacrifice, but this involves prior employer agreement and using a salary packaging company to do the administration. Some of the contribution rules have relaxed since July 2017 and you can now contribute by Personal Contribution. There are pros and cons of each contribution method, but as personal contributions don’t need the agreement of a third-party, I find this much easier to do.

You will have to let your super fund know that you are claiming a tax deduction for this contribution. Use a standard ATO personal contribution form or, it is simpler with some super funds where an online application is all that is needed. You must get your contribution to land in your super fund before the June 30 deadline.

Benefits of salary sacrifice and additional concessional contributions

If your marginal tax rate is higher than 15%, making extra super contributions can reduce your tax. For the $90,000 a year example, your marginal tax rate is 32.5% + Medicare levy. Concessional super is taxed at just 15%. If your marginal tax is higher, you can save more. Industry super has a calculator where you can enter your own figures. For the case above, a 45-year-old will have a tax saving of $3222 this year and an extra $405,000 at retirement by maximizing concessional contribution.

From the Industry Super Funds Calculator for a 45-year-old on $90,000 who maximizes their concessional contributions and save $3222 this year – and ends up with an extra $405,000 at retirement with these assumptions.

Let’s get concessional, concessional,
I want to get concessional,
Let’s get into concessional,
Let me hear your body talk, your body talk …

Many apologies to Olivia Newton John … for real inspiration, check out the Olivia on youtube