Getting good financial planning advice needs some careful planning on your part.

Within the financial planning industry, there are many situations where the advice you are likely to receive may not be based solely on your best interests. For example;

• your planner may only be able to recommend a limited range of investment products. This situation is common amongst many of the banks
• the advice you receive may be highly motivated by the payments the planner will receive, ie upfront fees/commissions paid to the planner
• your planner may not be able to give you advice on strategies/structures, etc that would ideally suit your needs. For example, many financial planners do not recommend self managed super funds (SMSF) due to the complex nature of this structure. Yet this structure is one of the fastest growing structures chosen by many investors. Other examples include Exchange Traded Funds (ETF's), Direct Investment (shares, term deposits, real estate, etc). These structures normally do not pay commissions are do not form part of most financial planners services.
• few planners provide advice on Estate Planning strategies. These strategies are particularly important for retirees who have very clear goals on how they would like their assets distributed on death. Your planner needs to make sure their strategies compliment your estate planning objectives.

Another important issue you should consider is the regular review of your portfolio. This part of the financial planning process is often neglected by many financial planners.

The 50Plus business model is based on;

• a high level of ongoing and regular communication with clients
• a formal service offering which has been highly recognised by it's clients and it's peers
• no upfront fees or upfront commissions
• no plan preparation fees
• no plan implementation fees

To learn more about 50Plus, go to the section of the web site entitled "About 50Plus". Here you will find out more about the 50Plus business profile, the 50Plus staff, Product Providers, etc.