Advisers need to implement the strategies they suggest for clients so they can better understand the barriers that those clients faced, a large advisory firm has said.
Dixon Advisory head of financial advisory Nerida Cole said “actioning strategies for yourself increases your confidence in conveying those strategies to clients and assists in understanding some of the frustrations that can arise when implementing what might seem like a straightforward adjustment.”
Cole said financial advisers could find it hard to make the time to deal with their own finances, retirement planning and career development.
“After a week of assessing clients’ finances, looking at our own is not always the top of the priority list when we go home at night,” she said.
While the financial benefits should be sufficient persuasion, advisers could use different methods to address their own finances.
“Similar to personal training, some people achieve their best when they have an allocated time set aside to meet with someone to coach and encourage them into action. Perhaps another family member or colleague can help to keep you focused on your financial fitness,” she said.
For other planners, a dedicated external advisor could be effective, “preferably someone you respect who has travelled down the same the road”, Cole said.
If another advisor was not used, then self-discipline was vital to schedule a compulsory one hour per fortnight or day per month to analyse the adviser’s own situation, do paperwork and adjust strategies.
For senior staff, principals or directors, prepaying interest on investment loans and income protection insurance could help manage tax in the current financial year.
As interest rates were moving, considering loan structures and fixed versus variable against the investment strategy could provide valuable savings or enhance flexibility.
High income earners could prepay private health insurance before 30 June before means testing introduced in 2012-13 would reduce access to government rebates.
Maximising concessional contributions might be appropriate for those on high incomes.
Small adjustments in the last month of the financial year might generate hundreds of dollars extra for the adviser rather than the Australian Taxation Office.
