FAQ

1. Who really owns or Licences your firm?

Unlike the majority of Financial Planners and Advisers in Australia, Strategy Financial Planning is both Independently Owned and Licensed.

For more information please download our Financial Services Guide here.

2. Are you Fee for Service?

Yes. More importantly we don't just say it, we back our words with actions.

From 1 July 2013 Commissions were banned on most Financial Products so you may assume that all Financial Planning firms are now Fee for Service. Well, this depends on how you define Fee for Service. If you believe that replacing a 1% "Commission" with a 1% "Adviser Fee" makes a firm Fee for Service, then all Financial Planning firms are now Fee for Service. We however do not believe that simply replacing one percentage based fee with another percentage based fee actually changes anything.

At Strategy Financial Consulting we charge our clients a fee based on the level of work provided to that client plus an allowance for 3rd party costs such as Taxation Advice, Completion of Accounting and Audit work, Portfolio Services, Brokerage, Legal Advice, Research, Licensee Fees and Professional Indemnity Insurance. This means that the fee our client pays is not directly linked to the amount they have available to invest.

3. What experience do you have?

Glen Killen, principal of Strategy Financial Consulting, has over 25 years’ experience in the Financial Planning & Financial Services Industries.

This consists of 10 years’ experience in Consumer and Commercial Lending and 15 years’ experience as a Financial Planner and Financial Consultant. Glen has extensive experience in designing and implementing strategies focussed on all aspects of his clients financial needs. This includes debt reduction strategies, wealth creation strategies, risk minimisations strategies, retirement planning strategies and estate planning strategies. Additionally, Glen has a strong background in portfolio management and has a history of delivering results that exceed his clients’ expectations.

We manage individual Investment portfolios from $50,000 to $25 Million on behalf of our clients, with an average client portfolio being in excess of $1 Million. This does not mean that we only take on clients with six or seven figure sums available to invest. Several of our clients have no funds available to invest at present, but we are confident by following our advice they soon will have.

4. What Advice does your firm seek to provide to clients?

Strategy Financial Consulting specialises in providing structural and investment advice to its clients. As such, our focus is never on selling you a product but rather it is about developing the right strategy to allow you to achieve your individual goals. Once this has been developed we then overlay the correct structure (SMSF's, Private Investment Companies, Trusts, Trading Entities, Wills, Insurances) to achieve the best after tax outcome. It is only after this that we will then look at implementing the right investment portfolio for your individual needs.

Our primary focus is on providing our clients with strategies that will ensure that they can develop sufficient passive income to allow them to retire. This is highly important as it is only a lack of passive income that stops people from retiring. Unfortunately, most people have been taught to believe that it is the amount of capital you have is the single most important factor, but we do not believe this is true.

5. What do you look for in a client?

The majority of our clients are aged 40 to 55 preparing for their retirement. Although, we have clients aged from 25 to 85. The common factor is that our clients are looking to achieve their goals in a realistic timeframe and without taking unnecessary risks. They are not looking for a get rich quick scheme, which is good because we don't offer them.

Many of our clients are either Self Employed or involved in the running, or managing, of the business they work in.

Our ideal client is one who is prepared to articulate their goals and help us to understand why money is important to them. We believe money is a means to an end, not the end game. By helping us to understand what you want to achieve we are better placed to help you achieve your goals.

6. Are you successful?

Yes, we believe we are. More importantly, we believe our clients would tell you they have achieved results beyond their expectations.

We measure our success in two ways. Firstly, and most importantly, we measure it by the financially secure lifestyle being enjoyed by our clients. This has seen them able to achieve the goals that they nominated as important to them, be that going on the dream holiday, helping with the grandchildren’s education expenses or retiring early.

The second way is the returns that our clients are achieving from their investment portfolios. We have over $ 40Million in investments under our direct advice and whilst we will never claim to best the absolute best investment advisers in Australia, who would make such a claim, we will happily put our long term performance up for comparison against any other adviser.

We believe that our strategies and investment portfolio's offer our clients the ability to reach their goals by establishing relatively low risk (as opposed to low volatility) investment portfolios that are designed to deliver the income they need when they need it.

7. What are your qualifications and professional memberships?

Glen Killen has completed a Diploma of Financial Planning and an Advanced Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning). He is an Authorised Representative of Avalonfs Pty Ltd an Independently owned Australian Financial Services Licensee.

He is a member of the Association of Financial Advisers.

8. What areas do you provide advice on?

Pretty well everything that matters:

* Budgeting
* Strategic advice on wealth creation and investments
* Superannuation including Self-Managed Super Funds
* Retirement Planning
* Direct shares and managed funds
* Personal Insurances (life / total and permanent disablement / trauma / income protection)
* Estate Planning (tax-effectively passing on assets to beneficiaries)
* Debt Management

9. Where are you based and how do you deal with clients based in other locations?

We are based in Port Macquarie on the NSW Mid-North Coast, but our clients are spread from Melbourne to South East Queensland including Sydney, Central and North West NSW (Hunter Valley, Mudgee, Dubbo).

Most of our initial contacts with clients outside the Sydney or NSW Mid North Coast regions occur via phone or email. However, prior to preparing a Statement of Advice for a new client it is our preference that we conduct a face-to-face meeting to ensure that we are able to work together. This may require the potential client to travel to either Port Macquarie or Sydney.

Clients that have entered into a retainer arrangement are welcome to contact us by phone or email at anytime with questions they may have. It is our belief that our clients should always feel they can contact us in order that they can have the best possible understanding of the investments they hold and the strategies we have implemented for them. This ensures that any fears or concerns they have can be addressed early to avoid the client making an uninformed decision.

We are always available for a meeting in our office or a coffee at one of Port Macquarie's fantastic coffee shops to discuss a clients changing needs, investments or so they can introduce us to a potential new client we can help.