frequently asked questions

Here are some of the questions we’re often asked by people who meet with a Strategic Planning Partners financial adviser.

How can SPP help me plan my retirement?

Strategic Planning Partners can help you understand all your options and make the right choices to achieve the lifestyle you want. You’ll understand the likely impact of your choices, from when you choose to retire through to how much income you’ll need when you stop working and a lot more. You’ll understand how long your money is likely to last – and explore strategies that may extend the life of your money. And you’ll have peace of mind knowing you have not missed opportunities, and your financial future is under control.

What are your fees and charges?

There is no charge for the first consultation with an SPP financial adviser. You will be quoted on a fee for any initial advice work prior to commencing the financial planning process. This fee will be based on the adviser’s assessment of the complexity and time involved in providing the advice and includes the preparation of a comprehensive written financial plan.

An ongoing financial planning and advice fee entitles you to become part of our Private Client Service. Fees are either deducted from your investments or invoiced directly to you. All fees are fully disclosed and agreed upon before we provide any advice.

For our ‘Private Client Service’ clients, our tax return service is also available for a small annual fee.

I’ve had a terrible experience with a financial planner in the past, how do I know I can trust you?

Strategic Planning Partners is a principal member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia. This means that we must comply with the FPA’s strict Code of Ethics and Rules of Professional Conduct. SPP is regularly audited, a process which we welcome, to ensure that we are operating within the Financial Services Regulation Act. We also participate in a regular voluntary review and auditing process to ensure that we continuously exceed the minimum requirements.

All of our advisers are tertiary qualified and must continue their professional education in order to meet ASIC’s ongoing requirements.

As compliant as we are with all of the legal requirements, we appreciate that trust is something that has to be earned. We welcome your enquiries and promise to work with you to ensure that you understand all of our recommendations prior to proceeding with implementation. We want to develop a long term relationship with you to guide you throughout your lifetime. As such we must know what is important to you.

Many of our clients have offered to act as referees of our firm, to provide unbiased information to anyone wanting to know more about SPP from a client’s perspective. Should you wish to speak to one of our clients, please email the members of our Client Advisory Group at cag@sppgroup.com.

What type of investments do you use?

To enable our clients to meet their lifestyle goals and objectives, SPP typically uses a multi-manager approach to implementing clients’ investment portfolios.

This involves the adviser building the right asset allocation for clients, but then ‘outsourcing’ the selection of fund managers to a specialist research house.

SPP uses ipac Asset Management to hire, fire and rebalance investment managers for our clients. Ipac has 40 full time analysts selecting the best fund managers from around the world and blending them into portfolios for clients.

The ipac portfolios have 26 specialist fund managers utilising over 2,000 investments which means our clients have access to highly diversified and actively managed portfolios.

Four principles underpin ipac’s approach:

Quality - sustainable contribution to wealth creation
Value - asset prices can be defended and sustained
Diversity - of the drivers of investment returns
Time - discipline, not emotion, must drive investment decisions