any good financial adviser?

Hi Ralph

so many people need financial education including me, but here is my 2c. Choosing a financial advisor is difficult because everyone has different needs, even if your close friend or someone here *strongly* recommends a financial advisor the financial advisor may not be suitable for your situation and even worse contradict your own growth strategies. 

How to find a Financial Advisor

1. Search for an advisor and find a name here:

http://www.afa.asn.au/

2. Google their name and see what companies they have worked for in the past.

If you like property, have they worked in property, if you like options, have they worked in shares, fx, funds, what funds, etc

3. Put their name in linkedin.com and check out their past employers, was the companies successful or go into administration? check out any references on this site by other people in the industry (often this is unreliable due to mates giving eachother pats on the back.

4. I would then type in their name in google + asic.gov.au

http://www.asic.gov.au/

Read every article that comes up

If you are still happy with them, meet them and ask them the following questions:

1. How much experience do you have? How long have you been working as a financial planner? What kind of work have you done for clients like me?
2. What are your qualifications? Are you a certified financial planner professional or CFP® practitioner, a certified public accountant-personal financial specialist (CPA-PFS) or a chartered financial consultant (ChFC)? Be sure to look for a planner who has experience in insurance, tax planning, investments, estate planning and/or retirement planning.
3. What services do you offer? Do you sell stocks, mutual funds and other financial products? Do you sell life insurance? Financial planners are generally barred from selling insurance or securities without the proper licenses and cannot give clients investment advice unless they are registered with state or federal authorities.
4. What is your approach to financial planning? Will you make recommendations and then bring in other professionals to execute them or will you help me buy the stocks, bonds and life insurance policies I need? Make sure the planner's investment approach matches your own financial goals and objectives and is not too cautious or overly aggressive.
5. Will you be the only person working with me? Do you have other people in the office that will assist you? If your planner works with attorneys, accountants or life insurance agents to implement his plans, be sure to get a list of names and check their backgrounds.
6. How will I pay for your services? Some planners charge an hourly fee or monthly retainer. Other planners charge a fee equivalent to a percentage of the client's assets they have under management. Others charge you nothing but earn a commission from sales of life insurance, mutual funds and other products.
7. How much do you typically charge? Can you give me an estimate of how much my costs will be? These costs should include the planner's hourly rates, asset management fees and any commissions he is likely to receive from the products that he sells you.
8. Could anyone besides me benefit from your recommendations? If your planner receives commissions from product sales or referral fees from other companies or professionals who send him business, make sure that he fully discloses these potential conflicts of interest.
9. Have you ever been disciplined for any unlawful or unethical actions in your professional career? What government agencies and/or professional regulatory bodies (ASIC, etc.) are you governed by? Contact these organizations to conduct a thorough background check.
10. Can I have it in writing? Ask the planner to provide you with a written agreement detailing the services to be provided. Keep it in your files for future reference.

Above 10 questions sourced from here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201860

HTH's!

Cheers

Bruce

I agree with Jamie

From my limited experience in investing here is what I believe.. anyone please pull me up if I am wrong

Passive investor

• Uses Financial advisor
• Don't mind traffic light indicators to make decisions based on green, amber and red for aggressive / moderate / conservative s
• Asset base goes down when market goes down

Active Investor

• Uses a finance broker
• Uses a lawyer
• Uses an accountant
• Uses an online share trading account
• Performs research
• Asset base remains OK and usually goes up when market goes down

Sorry i was typing on the phone when I wrote this. This website is very hard to post on.

I meant to say that which structure you use is only half the story – or not even half.

for example, Imagine if you set up your trust so that it is water tight and then you transfer a house you personally own to it for undermarket value = virtually no asset protection.

Check out Lincoln Holland FP CPA against the check list.

He is located in Lillydale VIC.

He is a fully licensed FP and practising accountant.

Which means he can independently select which ever product he deems appropriate for his clients risk stategy.

Tipped all of his clients out of international equities 2 years ago, and has doubled their returns.

RMIT alumni (same as Steve McKnight the Chairman).

Ex FT member of staff, Dept of Business RMIT (Awarded most popular lecturer from students)

Lincoln is the real deal.

Has no experience with property – that's where the Chairman comes in.

callmeLes

Wise choice Ralph. BTW Have you read Steve McKnights book From 0 to 130 properties? Even if you take 5% know how out of that book you are well on the way to being active. Of course Ballarat referenced in the book has gone up in value since, but the principles remain the same all over.