What is a financial planner?

Unlike a stock broker, who directly invests your money in the stock market, a financial planner devises a financial plan to help you save money for now and later in life, so that you have a comfortable retirement.

A good financial planner is fair and upfront about fees, is accessible and answers your questions. You can usually find a good financial planner by asking friends, family or co-workers, or checking out the FPA website.

Once you have located a qualified financial planner, what can he or she assist you with?

1. Help You Understand Risk

Your financial planner will carefully consider your debt, assets and income to assess where you stand. Your financial planner will then develop a sound financial plan based on your needs and future goals. If you want to build wealth through investments, your financial planner will take into account the level of risk you are willing to take when they put together an investment strategy for you.

As you get more comfortable with investing and risk, your financial planner can also assist you with devising a strategy to alter your risk levels over time, so that you're putting more of your money into more secure investments as you acquire wealth.

2) Assess Your Insurance Needs

No matter how old you are or your income levels, it's essential that the ones you love are taken care of in the event of your death or injury. This means making sure you have adequate insurance to cover your needs, such as paying off your home loan, paying the everyday bills and putting your children through school.

There are many different types of insurance policies available, such as life insurance, income protection insurance, disability, trauma and salary continuance. A meeting with a financial planner will help you to assess your debt, your needs and your risk to find an insurance plan that's perfect for you and your loved ones.

3) Avoid Over-Taxation

If you're trying to manage superannuation funds, investments, and all of the financial planning factors on your own, you might be taking a hit in the taxation department.

The government has set up a lot of laws to help Australians save through superannuation funds that give tax breaks. However, a good financial plan will have a diverse mixture of investments that expands above and beyond superannuation only.

4) Retirement Planning

Waiting until you're ready to retire to take retirement planning into hand is by far the worst thing you can do. As Australians are living longer due to good nutrition and better healthcare, this means there will be less in the Age Pension fund to help out in your retirement years.

Your financial planner can help you plan for your retirement by helping you to choose a good mixture of superannuation fund, investments outside of super that you can access in the event of emergency, and help you manage the level of insurance you need to cover your loved ones' cost of living in the event of your passing.

5) Solving the Myth of Superannuation

A financial planner can help you understand which superannuation funds work best for you. Understanding the ins and outs of superannuation can be confusing on your own.

6) Borrow to Invest?

A financial planner may be able to help you decide if it's in your best interest to borrow money to help you make better investments. Some people want to create wealth quickly, and borrowing money will give you more funds to allocate towards investment.

Your financial planner can assist you with assessing your financial position to get an idea of the level of risk involved. If you decide to borrow, you'd still be assuming risk, but with the help of a qualified financial planner, it would be less than if you decided to borrow on your own.

7) Assess Inflation

If you look at your portfolio, you might think you have a good amount of capital growing - until you take into consideration the rate of inflation.

A good financial planner will be able to help you assess inflation to help you keep your capital growing over the years. You want to make sure your after-tax return is greater than the rate of inflation so the value of your money doesn't decline. You also want to make sure you have some capital growth over the years, and a financial planner can help ensure this.

In Conclusion

There are a few things a financial planner can assist you with to get your finances in order. From retirement planning to assessing the inflation rates to your portfolio, a good financial planner is able to channel funds into different risked funds and plans to create a secure future for you and your loved ones.

So don't delay any longer and speak to a financial planner at Intellichoice today on 1300 55 10 45 to find out how we can help you achieve your financial goals.