Two Ridiculous Myths About The Financial Planning Industry

I have sat with literally HUNDREDS of people to specifically discuss financial planning over the last 6 years as an adviser and I have had thousands of conversations with people about planning and advice.

There seems to be a massive disconnect between what people believe about financial advisers and planning in general and what it is actually all about. As an ex-adviser turned Money Coach I am in a unique position to debunk two of these myths. Some are spread by the advice industry and others misconstrued by media outlets.

1. Financial Advisers help you budget

Every time I went to a party or BBQ and someone asked me what I did, I would tell them that I was an adviser and nearly every single time people would say “I need a financial adviser, I can’t save any money”. But the reality is that advisers and the planning industry mostly only help you with how you direct your surplus income or invest a lump sum of cash or super.

It’s a head-scratcher, right? Most people need the precise kind of help that the adviser doesn’t do to get them to a point that they can help them???

So why does this happen? The reason behind this is two-fold as far as I can tell.

1. The first – They don’t know how to do it well enough. This in my opinion is because when they don’t get taught how when they get their qualification and they don’t learn it when they get a job because no-one else is really doing it.
2. The second – It’s really hard to get good results for clients. Helping someone save money by recommending they put money into their super is measurable and low hanging fruit. Taking the credit for recommending managed funds when they do well is super easy. Supporting people and getting to the roots of their spending problems is really damn hard.

Financial Planning always costs more than the value it adds

This is a REALLY interesting one because it might cost $1,000 for advice or it might cost $5,000, it doesn’t matter what it costs so long as the value it adds is more. What makes this interesting is it can be really hard to measure the results of planning until years after the fact. Picture this…

A client is most likely to be tens-hundreds of thousands of dollars better off depending on when they sought advice. Plus, for most people, they have peace of mind and confidence that they are going to succeed in their goals. Those are two massive value adds.

You may know someone who has had a shit experience with an adviser or something in their plan didn’t work and now they are completely turned off getting help. It’s hard to trust again but good help is just around the corner.

A pro tip: Don’t be put off by the immediate cost, look for the value BUT if you can’t see the value in the advice then maybe your sitting in front of the wrong person… maybe you need a specialist to help you with what you want to achieve?

Have some questions? Want to know how it applies to you? Want a review of your personal situation? Click here to book a Free 15 Minute Discovery Session, give us a call on 1800 577 336, or email us at hello@wealtheon.com.au.