At Wealth Fundamentals we understand that under 45’s need financial advice that is specific to their lifestyle now and that is responsive to opportunities that come with establishing careers in high performing and high earning professions.
To accommodate these needs, we developed a financial planning specialisation specifically for young professionals, business owners and high income earners.
While retirement planning is important for young professionals, the start of their career and family life is more about cash-flow management, implementing debt management plans and creating wealth accumulation strategies that are appropriate, but which don’t curtail opportunities for living life to the full.
We work with young professionals including accountants, solicitors, medical practitioners and other high income earners to assist them to create and implement savings, as well as spending strategies that are designed to accommodate not just daily expenditure but to fulfil aspirations. Aspirations that might include goals for travel or acquisition of discretionary items such as motor vehicles or luxury items. Additionally, we guide financial decision-making by offering real life financial scenarios and exploring potential avenues for establishing the type of investment portfolios that are tailored to your specific financial needs.
While enjoying the income and the assets you accumulate is important, so too is protecting it. We tailor personal protection insurance specifically to your needs, whether you are single, part of a couple or supporting a young family. Our approach is consultative and realistic offering what you need now while helping you to keep an eye on your future.
Our services include:
Financial Planning: Cash flow management, tax effective strategies & structuring
Investments: Accumulating wealth
Debt management
Superannuation/SMSF
Personal Insurances: Income protection, life insurance, trauma insurances
Business insurances: Buy sell agreements, key man & business insurance
Estate Planning
TESTIMONIALS
“Why don’t we just cancel that Income Protection of yours? The GFC hit and my husband and I were looking at where we could save some money to pay the bills. The question arose as to whether we should cancel our Income Protection due to the cost. Dial forward 7 years and I found myself in the grips of an illness that not only took away my ability to continue a 20 year professional career that I loved, but even my ability to do the basic tasks of living. BUT I did not have to worry about the bills that had to be paid or the birthdays and even Christmas that came around, as we never did cancel that Income Protection of mine. Every month, like clockwork, my monthly benefit was paid into our bank account. Though I was not able to live my life and go to work my income did not stop. When I was able to return to part time work they even paid me a partial benefit to compensate for my lower income. My premium got refunded every month and I even got a top up of 20% on my Monthly Benefit due to the fact that I have not claimed on my policy over 10 years. Thank you Matthew and Chris for encouraging me to keep that Income Protection, for gently pushing me to start the claims process when I could not always string sentences together, thanks for your assistance in the claim process and most of all: Thank you for the peace of mind I had in this difficult time.”
“Matt helped us to consolidate our financial position as a couple and that enabled us to have a clearer picture of what we could comfortably achieve in the future. We appreciated his flexible approach; he knew we were time-poor and made the effort to meet us outside of office hours at a location most convenient for us. I’d definitely recommend Wealth Fundamentals and Matt Lane. Matt has a broad base of knowledge and experience. We felt reassured by his holistic approach that considered every aspect of our lives and helped us put in place protection measures to safeguard our family’s future.
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CASE STUDY
Background
James and Kylie, a young professional couple, needed financial insights so that they could confidently make decisions for their future. They wanted to start a family but were unsure how they would cope financially without Kylie’s salary. There were other matters too; an inherited investment property and dual super funds they feared were under-performing.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT IS A FINANCIAL PLAN?
A financial plan is your own personal blueprint to target your wants/goals whilst staying true to your values. Your personal financial plan will be created just for you and your family’s goals for the future.
Two major areas within our financial planning strategies are: (1) to help our clients review and strengthen the fundamentals of their current financial position and (2) once this has been done, we conduct regular reviews of the plan designed to assist you to continue your journey to creating financial independence.
ARE YOU OWNED BY A BANK?
No. Wealth Fundamentals is a privately owned business and is not affiliated with any bank, or insurance company.
HOW DO YOU GET PAID?
Our fees are mutually agreed directly between adviser and client and are not dependent on product sales. In relation to insurance advice, we do receive commission payments.
WHAT DOES IT COST?
Our initial meeting fee is $220 GST inclusive. At Wealth Fundamentals we strive to add value to clients’ lives and to help them create financial independence. Therefore, this first meeting is about helping us to understand your goals and objectives and for us to determine the scope of work involved to assist us to add value.
We will then provide you with an engagement letter setting out the direct cost for our upfront advice (less the initial meeting fee of $220) as well as the direct costs involved for Wealth Fundamentals to provide our ongoing review service designed to keep you on track to creating financial independence.
The level of fee depends on the complexity and the level of service required to help achieve your goals.
I AM NOT CLOSE TO RETIRING OR ALREADY REALLY WEALTHY, SO WHY DO I NEED AN ADVISER?
In addition to assisting clients approaching retirement, or those who have already built significant wealth, it could be argued that we actually provide the most value to our younger clients. This is simply because the earlier you get started on your wealth creation journey, the more strategies you can put in place, the more good behaviours you can establish and the more compounding investment returns you may be able to achieve.
Being ‘wealthy’ is not just about how much money you have but also about security, freedom of choice and looking after the next generation. In some instances, one of the biggest determinants of wealth is the client’s motivation to engage in and take an active role in the financial mentoring process.
WHERE WILL MY RETIREMENT FUNDS BE INVESTED?
That’s determined by you, your goals and the vehicles designed to achieve them.
At Wealth Fundamentals we see investments as solutions to your goals, not influencers. Once we know your goals and preferences we work with you to create a portfolio that is tailored to your needs. All investments have their degree of risk and at Wealth Fundamentals we will educate you on these risks so you can have an understanding of your portfolio and how it is tailored to your needs.
SHOULD I BE CONTRIBUTING TO SUPER OR PAYING DOWN MY MORTGAGE?
Debt Planning and Retirement Planning are two of our 7 fundamentals of financial planning. As part of a balanced financial plan it is often not an outcome of all or none.
At Wealth Fundamentals we look at your goals and objectives and create a financial plan designed to take into account your short, medium and long-term needs. The aim of this balanced approach is to pay down your mortgage whilst also increasing your super.
I HAVE SOME INSURANCE THROUGH MY SUPER, IS IT ENOUGH?
Insurance Planning is vitally important to any wealth accumulation strategy. In some cases, the insurance provided via your superannuation is a default level of cover that may not be appropriate to your personal circumstances.
At Wealth Fundamentals, as part of our 7 fundamentals designed to building a strong financial position, we assess your insurance needs and tailor an insurance portfolio that reflects these needs. Relying on a default level of cover provided by a superannuation fund may or may not meet these needs.
Call us today to arrange an appointment to discuss your insurance needs.
INCOME PROTECTION INSURANCE, IS IT REALLY WORTH HAVING?
Income Protection is an essential part of any Insurance Planning and wealth accumulation strategy. Without an income we put at risk our mortgage repayments, standard of living and future financial independence. However not all Income Protection policies are the same; each policy has varying benefits, claim definitions and premium costs. It is vitally important that you have a policy that meets your needs and provides you with suitable cover.
At Wealth Fundamentals we strive to put strategies in place so that our clients and their family’s current and future financial certainty is not at risk. Call us today to discuss Income Protection or review your current policy to help determine whether it is suitable to your needs (at claim time it is too late).
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAVING A WILL AND ESTATE PLANNING?
Having a Will is just one component of Estate Planning. A Will just deals with assets that are in your personal name and does not take into account assets in other entities (e.g. superannuation, family trust etc).
A properly drafted Estate Plan looks at all your assets and entities and how these will be impacted upon your death. It looks at possible tax implications, control issues and access issues in the event of your death.
An Estate Plan also looks at other matters outside of the Will such as Powers of Attorney, Health Directives, Binding Death benefit nominations etc. Please contact us today to discuss your Estate Planning needs. An appropriately drafted Estate Plan will help create asset protection, tax minimisation and a much more certain outcome for your beneficiaries.