This content features a financial advisor, Jeremy, from Stonehouse Group, discussing financial planning, particularly for pre-retirement and retirement clients, and also highlights the integration of mortgage broking as a value-add service. The discussion emphasizes building client trust, understanding their holistic needs beyond just numbers, and navigating the evolving regulatory landscape.
hello everyone we have jeremy from stone
group financials talking to us today
about financial advice
welcome jeremy thanks for having me
kingsley appreciate it yes jeremy tell
us about what you do with your work sure
sure so i'm a partner and financial
advisor at stonehouse group
i actually started at stonehouse about
12 years ago and when i started out i
started in the power planning
section of the business which gave me
really good insight into the the various
aspects of financial planning and and
really how it came together so in terms of
of
what i do now i have a dual a dual focus
at stonehouse part of my role is
actually helping to run the business
itself we have a few different offices
in the different states and we also have
a credit license and mortgage broking
too and the other part of the role is
obviously is assisting my clients and
the majority of
clients that i see are in the pre-retirement
pre-retirement
and retirement phase of their life so i
help them with the with the planning
helping them to gain some clarity
but ultimately it's it's helping them
get some peace of mind around the
situation right yes so it's a very
interesting setup
that you have the advice and also the
mortgage brokering is that something
when did this start
sure so it started about two or three years
years
ago or so and really the reason why we
set it up is a value add to our clients
so we were previously working with
different mortgage brokers before
but it obviously would delay the
advice process by external factors
so the ability to have a client in a
meeting with us and for a mortgage
broker to come in and assist is really
beneficial from the client and they know
that they have you know both of us
looking after them after them as well right
right
could you share with us what
makes you wake up really excited to get
into this business sure so i'll go back
a few years
first of all the reason why why i got
into this business is is growing up i
had a single single mother and she had a
small business
and in time i could see that there was such
such
you know high points and also low points
you know for the business and with
personal finances as well and it really
got me thinking about you know why is it
that some people do so well financially
some people don't some people are very
organized and it could be really curious
about what makes people tick financially
and and why do some people know
more about it so in terms of why i wake
up in the morning it's because there are
so many people that don't truly
understand their finances but not just
the money side it's how it fits into the
overall life and gives them a quality a
quality life
so i love it when i wake up in the
morning and knowing that i'm actually impacting
impacting
clients and because i've been with the
same business for a period of time when
we're talking about long-term plans with
clients um you know looking back over
the past i've had the opportunity to see
some of those plans come to fruition and
enjoy those moments
with the clients it truly makes it feel
like it's it's worthwhile and you can
see the direct impact right you're
having on someone excellent
excellent
so we have a lot of changes and increase
in regulations and
with farseers and adding lots of content
what can you tell us about tell the
students about what they should learn
beyond the textbooks clearly we have very
very
comprehensive sets of
educational material but what are the
skills and other things that they should
be mindful of to do well okay in regards
to the regulation or just broadly which
other skills should they be aware of i
guess is beyond the
what could be learned from techs and
universities okay so i probably feel as
though you know just quickly on the
regulation side of things right the the
only constant in this industry has been
changed right and that's that's a fact
of life ultimately it will result in a
better outcome for the industry so
essentially you know you need to be
doing obviously the right thing and
understand what the legislation is but
there will always be more change right
now outside of that i think what would
be great for students to understand is
there's a lot more to financial planning
than a strategy you can learn in the
textbook right so what was really
valuable about my own journey is because
i started in power planning in the
business getting an understanding of
not just the strategies but the whole
financial planning process and how the
different teams in a financial planning business
business
work from an administration perspective
to power planning to advice to
compliance and how everything
how everything fits together
and i think to be successful you not
only need to know what the strategy is
but how a financial planning operation actually
actually
works regardless of if you're in a big business
business
or a small business as well so that
that's probably one the the second one
that i recommend
i know it sounds very simple
is is having the ability to properly listen
listen
to clients
i think it's very easy to
just demonstrate a strategy
to clients without fully understanding
what would they actually like you know
why are they sitting
in front of you they might tell you it's
for one particular reason but it's
actually your role to to build a
relationship and get to know what that person
person
really needs and would like
so a lot of the times it's much more
than the numbers on the strategy
so just one quick example on that is a
lot of the times with retiree clients
they have this whole plan mapped out for
their time and how they'll have a
certain amount of money and how they'll
spend it
and a lot of times in retirement they're
very hesitant to spend their money right
so what's really important and i place
some emphasis on this is actually having
the conversations to say
you need to spend
some of this money um because for a lot
of people they get to a stage whereby
something happens for a medical reason
they've got all of this money
and they haven't enjoyed any of it right
so it's having some bigger conversations
with clients outside of what just a
strategy yes might be so related to that
one of the common problem that i don't
know how to solve and i must ask the pro
here is what do you do with the client
we need to understand the clients but
they may not be very forthcoming with
any information so how do you deal with
that yeah that's a very a very good
question and it's a typical situation
imagine if you're new to financial planning
planning
and you study these great strategies and
you have a brand new
client a client meeting and you walk in
and you ask some questions and they're
very cold and very hesitant to talk
about their situation it's very common
and if you're not used to that it can be
very difficult and off-putting
and a lot of the times it's important to
realize that the reason might not be
what you think it might not be because
they just don't want to share it with
you they might not be comfortable
yet so it's your role as a professional
to explain why they're there the purpose
and help them to be comfortable
so what i often do in the meetings is
explain to the clients that i understand
this is the first time we're meeting
together and it's a big thing to talk
about your finances but today there's no decision
decision
making it's really to get a feel for who
we both are how we might be able to help
and obviously at the end of the meeting
we talk about the next steps right and
in order to help you as much as possible
we do need the full picture
for your finances right so typically
when you actually explain the reason for
why i'm asking all of these questions
about your money and your situation
a lot of people tend to relax
a little bit and then open up right right
right
so i guess one last question the
trust is and it's often said to be uh
very important well it is a very
important aspect of providing financial
services especially for financial
planning it's actually literally written
in the first year's
learning outcomes as well
what might be one or two points that you
could share with our students how to
build trust or how to
be trustworthy sure sure and a lot of
those those points are trustworthy and
with the new standards for for cm they
they tie hand to hand and it's really
important to know what those standards
actually are and the reason why is in
order to build
trust what you'll need to demonstrate to
the client is you are truly acting in
their best interest right so while it
might sound simple if they're telling
you what a priority and the goal is
you're giving them advice in that
particular area not something else that
the client actually hasn't discussed so
acting in their best interest you know
with limited conflicts removing all of
the conflicts of the advice is one area
from a practical perspective not rushing
the client in other words understanding
that this is a big process for someone
to trust someone i've never met before
for their finances to understand that
people like to move at different paces
just because it says in your process it
takes this amount of time to move to the
statement of advice and then we do the
review meeting at a certain point in time
time
to have some flexibility and if a client
needs another meeting for some financial
literacy or to explain something being
willing and able to do that
with your clients as opposed to rushing
through the full right process so i
think when they understand that you are
there to help them you're there so they
can explain it and give them the best advice
advice
that's something that helps to build the
trust yeah excellent well jeremy thank
you very much thanks very much kingsley
hey fiona pleasure to meet you and
thanks for coming in today hi jeremy
nice to meet you as well thank you how
was your birthday on the weekend oh it
was a lot of fun actually my sisters
came over and we sat outside and we
laughed so much it was great fantastic
do they does your family live nearby or
are they sort of scattered around
australia they live in on the northern
beaches okay yeah and um and you get to
spend much time with them
oh we made we we have a lot of um contact
contact
uh you know just through texting things
like that we might maybe get together
every couple of weeks every three weeks
or so okay i know so far we had just a
brief phone call about your situation um
and you've obviously mentioned
considering retirement and the fact that
you you would like to spend a little bit
more time with family
if possible um is is that the main thing
that you're looking forward to you know
in terms of a retirement perspective or
are you not enjoying work at the moment
um i think it's just not a bad idea to retire
retire
um when you're still
relatively fit and healthy and
able to make the transition
so i'm hoping that i can
fill my life i guess sure sure
well we'll certainly go into all of
those areas in today's meeting so the
purpose of the meeting today is for us
to get a bit of a feel for each other um
and also discuss the different options
you have available and for me to
understand where you're at financially
so we can start coming up with a few
different options okay for yourself how
does that sound yeah
this is what i came for great great so
before we dive into your financial
situation i just want to make sure that
you did have a chance to look through
the financial services guide and the
privacy policy that our office emailed
to you about a week ago or so
i know i received it but i'm pretty busy
at work to be honest and i haven't had a
good look at it okay okay sure so what
what we'll do today is i've got a
printed version which i'll which i'll
give you but there's a few key areas to
understand in that financial services
guide so by way of an example
they would include the fact that we are
licensed to give financial advice it
actually outlines the areas of advice
but it also does outline two key areas
such as if you did have a complaint in
the future where to to go okay and what
the fees could be for the advice as well
great so obviously at the end of the
meeting we'll discuss specifically that
what that looks like for your situation
but please just keep in mind that it's
an important document okay to read yeah
okay in in terms of finances can you
tell me a little bit about what your
involvement has been with looking after
your own finances in the past such as
purchasing different investments or even
looking at your own budget and
expenditure well i've been relatively
involved so uh
we do have an investment property and
that was
something that i thought about a lot and
you know it was a mutual decision
um since
we've separated um i've actually taken
i must admit the super
stuff i've just assumed that i've let it
take care of itself i've been pretty
lazy with that um
um
so i have a reasonable handle on things
but i think i'm going to need your help
okay sure sure and we'll certainly go
into all those areas so fiona i know
that you mentioned to me that you'd like
to retire and in terms of retirement for yourself
yourself
what are the key aspects that are
actually important to you whether it's
from a monetary or a lifestyle perspective
perspective
first of all financially i really want to
to
feel comfortable
and be able to do the things
that i've held off doing for a long time
so i would like to be able to travel and
i want to
you know go to the theater and go out
and things like that and i i'm
i'd like to know
that that's all possible okay sure
so later on in the meeting we'll explore
all of those key areas but just as a
starting point i'm wondering you know
over the past few years have you sat
down before and actually looked at what
does it cost you
per year to live and how much money do
you actually need for some of these
areas no idea okay okay
so that will that will form part of the
starting point just so we can define you
know if we're talking about your aim is
to receive an ongoing income yeah what
does that actually
look like okay and then we'll work
backwards to say how can you arrange
your assets um in order to achieve that
income on a on a sustainable basis okay
how does that sound to you yeah i think
that's what i need yeah okay okay now
one question that i'm just curious about
is is superannuation will obviously form
a key part of your retirement along with
the other assets but from a
superannuation perspective when the
statement arrives
each year
how much attention do you give the
statement and do you understand the
different items on the on the statement
i've really tried to monitor
monitor
my super and
change the investment strategy and
things like that i think i've done
really well okay i've got about eight
hundred thousand so i i'm curious
actually whether you you think that's
a good amount or whether you know
is is that going to be enough for me
sure sure um but i guess i wouldn't mind
some advice around uh
uh
whether i should stay with the
fund that i'm with or whether you could
recommend an alternative sure i can
certainly do that the only point in time
that i'd recommend a change if it was in
your best interest to actually do so so
as a starting point what we'll actually
do by the end of this meeting is start
to outline what the strategy is
first yeah if you can achieve that with
your current superannuation fund you can
certainly do that but if there is a need
to make a change we can recommend that
too so that's part of the full process
so by the end of this meeting you'll
have much clearer picture as to what it
means to engage a financial advisor what
the different options are as well and
also what the fees would look like for
the advice okay and the the only way
that we actually move forward with the
advice is if we're clearly able to show
that the value you receive the advice is
well over and above what the fees are
to actually engage your financial
advisors okay okay
okay
and then after that we'll talk about
what the process is and the next steps
does that sound okay it sounds good
perfect thanks fiona [Music]
hi fiona i'm jeremy nice to meet you hi
jeremy so fiona we we had a brief phone
call i think it was a few weeks ago um
um
was it retired was the retirement
planning that you were mentioning
that you're wanting to discuss today yes
yes
and and when abouts are you looking to
retire um i'm thinking in the next
couple of years perhaps i
i
haven't really decided okay sure sure
um and prior to the meeting our team
actually emailed you our financial
services guide and privacy policy did
you get a chance to read through those
items no
okay um look don't worry too much about
that it's it's in your email so another
point in time you can you can have a
look through those documents um well
they contain a few details about you
know who we are and financial advice um
but they're in your inbox anyway so feel
free to take a look at them you know
when you get a chance all right but but
just in terms of of your situation
what does retirement actually look like
for you
i've got
mixed feelings in a way i
i'm looking forward to it in the sense
that it's going to be
a more relaxed lifestyle and i can
do the things that i've wanted to do for
a while
that looks really nice to me
on the flip side i guess i'm a little
bit concerned about how
how i'm going to fund
my retirement and whether i can keep my
investment property and
okay look i'm sure you'll be i'm sure
you'll be fine we'll be able to come up
with a way
to make it work anyway right um and and
do you know how much money you need for retirement
retirement
no idea sorry okay well you know you
know most most people need about say
fifty thousand dollars or so so if we
can organize
a way to arrange your finances to get
fifty thousand dollars you should be
able to retire but that's enough to
go travelling and
do you
eat out do you frequently go do you
frequently travel is that something
you're interested in yeah definitely i'd
like to have it at least one trip a year okay
okay
okay well look you should be able to do
it but
we'll we'll move on um and we can always
come back to that a little bit later
now just in terms of your own situation
situation
what's your understanding like about
your superannuation uh i've looked after
it i think
but i really wouldn't mind hearing from you
you
about whether you think it's a good fund um
um
whether the options that i have in
invested in are
are
the most
positive things to be
okay okay so so what we'd like to look
for with the superannuation fund is is
the fund that will just give you the
highest highest return because obviously
if you get the highest return it'll earn
you more money and give you more for
retirement does that sound good
uh well
is that the most important thing well we
we'd like to make sure that you can
reshoot your your goal of 50 000 which
you said you need yeah uh in retirement
yeah we we will look into a bit more
detail in terms of how the investments
are positioned do you have much of an
understanding about the different types
of investments
well usually what interests me is
to be honest i don't
i don't judge it just on the return
i actually think for example one of the
options that i like is um
sustainable investment
look they they they can be okay um
what's what we'll do is there's a fund
that we typically use with our clients
that they get a really good result in so
we'll look at that fund first and then
what we'll do is we'll see if we can
find those sustainable investments for you
you
oh is it an industry fund
um so it's not an industry fund although
we can look at some of those funds but
really we just wanted to make sure you
get the performance um
um
and and then we can look at the
sustainable investing is that the most
important aspect for you can i trust you
of course of course this is what i do on
a daily basis with with my clients and
so you know what what we'll do is in the
next part of this we'll talk about what
the different options are and we'll talk
about what the fees are for you as well
okay and um and then we'll present what
the actual advice will be based on your
situation okay [Music]
[Music]
so fiona thanks for telling me a little
bit a little bit about your situation in
terms of when you plan to retire what
you'd like to do in retirement
now what we'll do is start to discuss
some of the specifics around how much
money you might actually need in
retirement okay and then how you can
actually organize your assets to provide
an ongoing income in retirement right
okay so just as a starting point for the conversation
