Q: How are you different?

A: We’re often told that our service differs to those of a typical adviser.

• Our published reviews and analysis under our non-advice service provides prospective investors an opportunity to “look under the hood” at some of the things we say to our clients.
• Our key focus is always on providing a better outcome to you as a client.
• We use a dynamic asset allocation process which seeks to prevent clients from investing in over-priced assets. Rather than blindly allocating to the same asset classes (e.g. 50% equities, 30% property etc.), we are constantly considering whether investing in an asset is worth taking relative to the risk free return of 10 year bonds.
• The majority of advice practices have some ownership by a large institution, often limiting the products distributed by the advisers and favouring its own products.

As a boutique free of institutional ownership, we are not beholden to a parent company and are not incentivised or limited towards a specific company’s products.

• We are a fee for service adviser and have been since the launch of our Personal Advice service in 2010. This removes many of the conflicts inherent in commission based advice.Commission based products have inbuilt adviser commissions. As a result, investors are left continuing to pay fees for a service they don’t receive or are unhappy with.
•  By offering a fee based service, it ensures our clients only pay fees for a service they are happy with.

Q: What type of clients use your services?

A: Although we don’t limit the type of clients we deal with, our clients are typically SMSFs nearing or are at retirement with an average balance of $1 Mill – $2 Mill.

This is more a reflection of our minimums and our investment philosophy, than us targeting SMSF clients for advice.