What is a Financial Planner?

The role of a financial planner is to work with you to establish your life goals and put in place strategies for using your money to achieve those goals. The starting point in this process is a meeting with your adviser to establish your goals and to understand your current financial situation. This involves completing a questionnaire with the help of your adviser covering your assets, liabilities, income, expenditure, key areas of financial risk and your attitudes towards money and risk. Your adviser will then work with you to establish a plan for achieving your goals.

A Certified Financial Planner is someone who has completed a university diploma in personal financial planning, and who has met the requirements of Financial Advice New Zealand (FANZ) for training and mentored experience.

In broad overview, Moneymax services encompass the following areas:

• Preparation of financial plans
• Investment Services
• Portfolio Management
• Retirement Planning and KiwiSaver
• Financial Advice
• Wealth Coaching

Preparation of your Financial Plan

A financial plan is a personalised written document which sets out your goals, your current situation, your attitudes towards money and risk and which recommends strategies in the areas of wealth creation, wealth management and wealth protection. It is a “living” document, in that it should evolve with your life-stage and be updated from time to time as you and your needs evolve and mature.

Investment Services

We can recommend investments for you to look after yourself or a portfolio that we can manage for you. In recommending investments we consider your goals, your current situation and your attitudes towards money and risk.

Portfolio Management

We can take care of your investment portfolio for you. We will recommend investments for you, manage all the paperwork, provide quarterly reports and end of year tax reporting. You will have online access to your portfolio. You can see your portfolio valuation and performance and run your own reports.

If you have spent time working and saving hard and investing wisely to build up a nest egg you don’t want to lose it again through the effects of inflation or poor investment decisions.

Moneymax can help you plan how to manage your wealth so that your life goals can be met – whether that means being able to cut down on the hours you work, retire early, provide income for a comfortable retirement or go on a world tour. We will work with you to:

• Identify your needs
• Recommend specific investments
• Manage your investment portfolio if required

Our recommendations will usually be documented in a financial plan that is tailored to your needs.

Financial Advice

We can review your existing portfolio, provide investment advice, or answer general queries about financial matters. If requested, we can provide professional, personalised advice on all aspects of wealth creation, wealth management and wealth protection.

Retirement Planning and KiwiSaver

Your Moneymax financial adviser can help you plan your retirement by calculating how much money you will need to provide a comfortable lifestyle when you retire. Your retirement plan will look at how much you need to save to reach your retirement goals and where to save, including recommendations on investing in a KiwiSaver scheme as well as alternatives which are complementary to KiwiSaver.
 
At the point of retirement, we can help you put in place investment strategies to make sure you have money available when you need it to fund your retirement goals, while minimising the risk of running out of money before you run out of life.
 

Our investment strategies are linked to the time frame in which you plan to spend your money. We will help you answer two very important questions.
 

1. Who is going to spend your money? (Will it be you, your family or someone else?)
2. When will your money be spent? (You may live for thirty years in retirement)

 
The answers to these questions will guide us in setting up investments with the aim of making sure your money is available when you need it, and that until that time, it is earning a good rate of return.

Wealth Creation

Wealth creation is the process of increasing your net wealth over time with the aim of using that wealth to achieve your life goals. The key components to wealth creation are:

• Planning what you want to do with your money
• Saving more through increasing your income and reducing your outgoings
• Investing your savings appropriately
• Systemising your money management

If you don’t know where you are going you’ll never get there! Planning how you want to spend your money, whether it is for your children’s education, an overseas holiday or for your retirement, gives you the motivation to create wealth rather than allowing your money to disappear on small, low value items that are probably unnecessary.

Research shows that people who don’t have a clear goal in mind when they save are more likely to withdraw their savings rather than letting them accumulate.
Moneymax can help identify ways of saving, investing and systemising your money management so that you automatically create wealth.

Wealth Protection and Life Insurance

Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Redundancy, illness or premature death are threats to your wealth and your ability to provide for your partner and children. You can choose to carry these risks yourself or to pass them on to someone else by way of insuring your life, your health or your income and by building up an emergency fund.

Looking after your family also means making sure you have an up-to-date will, protecting your assets from relationship property claims and planning the way in which your assets will be passed on to your beneficiaries.

Moneymax can help identify the risks and issues that you face and put you in touch with expert assistance to deal with them.

Moneymax Wealth Coaching

Your Moneymax wealth coach is a financial planner who guides you in the wealth creation process so that you can manage your wealth in order to achieve your life goals. Coaching is based on regular meetings aimed at helping you develop your own financial plan and strategies for wealth creation using our coaching workbooks and templates.

If you are living from payday to payday – or if you wish to achieve financial freedom through wealth creation – your Moneymax coach will get you on track. (See our Moneymax Coach website www.moneymaxcoach.com).

Our Promises to You

 
We will:
 
Treat you fairly
We take time to listen to your views and to deal with your preferences and your concerns. Our aim is to find solutions that you feel comfortable with and to allow you to make careful decisions, without pressure, after consideration of your goals, the benefits and the costs.
 
Act with integrity
Openness and transparency and key values for Moneymax. We take steps to avoid conflicts of interest. We prefer to be remunerated by fees rather than commission. We are open and honest in the way we describe our business and how we are remunerated.
 
Give financial advice that is suitable
As financial planners we strive to fully understand your needs and preferences and to give advice that will enable you to achieve your goals. We take a holistic approach to advice.
 
Ensure you understand the financial advice
Our recommendations are presented to you in writing for your consideration. We explain everything you need to know in simple terms and give you time to review our written advice and ask questions.
 
Protect your information
We have policies and procedures in place to ensure that any information we obtain from you is kept confidential and either returned to you or destroyed when no longer required.