Financial planners help you manage your money, make sound decisions to meet your goals and provide expert guidance on how to save for retirement, buy a home or plan for college. Investment advisors will typically offer advice on where to invest your money, but they do not advise on how much risk you should take with those investments or what steps you need to take toward meeting your goals.
The best financial planners and advisors in Melbourne, Victoria can be hard to find. That's why we're here. We've compiled a list of the best ones in your area so you can spend less time researching and more time getting on with your day-to-day life.
Freedom Financial Planning
Freedom Financial Planning's team of advisers and support staff are known for their expertise in financial planning, offering a wide range of services to help clients achieve their financial goals. The firm's commitment to providing high-quality financial advice and exceptional customer service has built a reputation for helping clients achieve financial freedom and security. By focusing on building long-term relationships based on trust, integrity, and transparency, Freedom Financial Planning ensures that clients' financial strategies are always aligned with their evolving needs and objectives.
Services offered:
- Debt Consolidation
- Personal and Car Loans
- Commercial Loans
- Equity Release
- First Home Buyer Support
Phone: 03 9542 3200
Email: askus@freedomfp.com.au
Address: Suite 29, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill VIC 3168
Website: https://freedomfinancialplanning.com.au/
Klear Picture
Klear Picture in Melbourne is a pioneer in providing top-notch financial management and advisory services. They focus on creating customised financial plans that align with their clients' individual goals, offering a comprehensive approach to wealth management.
Services Offered:
- Accounting & Taxation: Tailored accounting and tax services for various needs.
- Business Advisory: Expert financial management and planning for businesses.
- Private Wealth Advisory: Strategies for effective wealth creation and preservation.
- Lending & Capital Raising: Financing solutions for residential and commercial properties.
Address: 312/434 St. Kilda Road, VIC 3004
Phone: (03) 9998 1940
Email: team@klearpicture.com.au
Website: klearpicture.com.au
Partners In Planning
Partners In Planning, a prominent financial planning firm, specializes in the development of tailored strategies to empower clients to manage their financial affairs and attain their life aspirations. They underscore the significance of collaborating with professional financial planners to instill confidence and serenity regarding one's financial future. Recognizing that financial goals evolve over a person's lifetime, Partners In Planning tailors financial plans to harmonize with the specific life stage of each client. Their approach is meticulously structured to provide comprehensive assistance across various aspects of personal finance, ensuring that clients' financial needs are adeptly met throughout different phases of life.
Partners in Planning offers a spectrum of services, including:
- Budgeting and Cash Flow Management: Assisting clients in effectively managing day-to-day finances.
- Savings Plans: Devising strategies to enhance clients' saving practices.
- Superannuation and Tax Planning: Furnishing advice on superannuation and optimizing tax strategies.
- Home Loan Repayments and Debt Management: Providing expert guidance on the management and reduction of debts, including home loans.
- Insurance and Investment Advice: Offering well-informed recommendations on insurance coverage and investment opportunities.
- Retirement Planning: Tailoring financial plans to align with the unique needs and goals of retirement.
Phone: +61 1300 880 100
Email: info@partnersinplanning.com.au
Website: https://www.apartnerinplanning.com.au/
Lifespan Financial Planning
Lifespan Financial Planning specializes in offering comprehensive financial planning and advisory services, tailored to meet the diverse requirements of their clients. Their approach is grounded in providing personalized advice, which is reflective of each client's unique life situations, goals, and significant life events. Lifespan’s services include both scaled (event-specific) and comprehensive advice, ensuring that clients receive financial guidance that is not just aligned with their current needs but also aids in securing their financial future. The scaled advice targets particular areas of interest at specific times, while comprehensive advice encompasses a holistic view of the client's overall financial status.
Lifespan Financial Planning's array of services encompasses:
- Superannuation Advice: Including consultation on various types of super funds and SMSFs.
- Personal Insurance: Offering tailored protection options based on current and future life events.
- Investment Advice: Expert guidance on portfolio management, considering market trends and individual risk profiles.
- Managed Discretionary Account (MDA) and Managed Portfolio Service: Management of a variety of investor portfolios.
- Retirement Planning: Assistance in planning for retirement with a focus on savings and superannuation benefits.
- Estate Planning: Support in drafting wills, setting up powers of attorney, and nominating superannuation beneficiaries.
- Mortgages and Lending: In collaboration with Quay Finance, advice on property purchases, refinancing options, and investment properties.
Phone: (02) 9252 2000
Website: https://lifespanfp.com.au/
Mint Advisory
Mint Advisory, founded by David Dooley and situated in Melbourne, is a boutique financial planning firm with a 20-year history of offering strategic financial advice and direction. The firm excels in solving important client problems and providing practical financial planning services tailored to the commercial needs of their clients. Mint Advisory is committed to building robust, productive relationships with a wide range of clients, including those accumulating wealth, retirees, business owners, and separated couples requiring financial guidance.
The array of services provided by Mint Advisory includes:
- Superior Client Service: A dedicated Relationship Manager is assigned to each client for comprehensive service and support.
- Cost-effective Solutions: Competitive pricing for high-level financial planning advice.
- Experienced Consultation: The team brings a wealth of experience in solution-based financial advice.
- Independent Recommendations: Advice is based on independent research, with no ties to specific investment or insurance providers.
- Accessible Financial Advisers: Advisors are always available to address client needs.
- Practical, Solution-Oriented Approach: Focus on commercial solutions that align with clients' strategic plans.
- Specialized Services for Healthcare Professionals: Custom services encompassing superannuation, personal protection, estate planning, and more.
Phone: 03 9525 2879
Website: https://www.mintadvisory.com.au/
AJ Financial Planning
AJ Financial Planning, an Australian-based family-owned boutique firm, is renowned for its bespoke financial planning services. Their commitment to innovation and personalized strategies sets them apart in the industry. With a deep focus on delivering top-tier advice, AJ Financial Planning strives for excellence, helping clients chart a course to financial success. Their approach offers fresh perspectives on traditional financial management, ensuring clients navigate their financial future with confidence.
Services Offered:
- Innovative Advice: Pioneering solutions for complex financial challenges.
- Tailored Financial Advice: Customized financial guidance of the highest caliber.
- One-on-One Approach: Client-centric consultations for understanding and achieving financial objectives.
- Comprehensive Financial Planning: Encompassing all facets of financial management to optimize wealth and retirement income.
- Investment Strategy: Crafting investment plans aligned with clients' unique aspirations.
Phone: (03) 9077 0277
Email: info@ajfp.com.au
Website: https://www.ajfp.com.au/
Partners Wealth Group
Partners Wealth Group (PWG) specializes in providing customized wealth management solutions, assisting clients in achieving their financial and lifestyle aspirations. PWG adopts a personalized approach to wealth creation, ensuring that clients receive expert financial advice tailored to their unique situations. Their services are geared towards guiding clients to financial security, whether the focus is on retirement planning, investing for a family legacy, or building enduring wealth. PWG's commitment to a collaborative and personalized approach means clients with complex financial situations receive innovative solutions designed to meet their specific goals for financial freedom.
PWG offers a variety of services, including:
- Financial Advice: Expert guidance on diverse financial issues.
- Investment & Wealth Management: Strategies for wealth accumulation and management.
- Lending & Mortgage Broking: Assistance with loan and mortgage solutions.
- Superannuation & SMSF: Consultation on superannuation funds and self-managed super funds.
- Legal Solutions: Legal advisory services related to wealth management.
- Aged Care Advice: Financial planning guidance for aged care.
- Wealth Protection: Methods to safeguard clients' wealth.
- Listed & Unlisted Investments: Investment opportunities in various asset classes.
Phone: 03 8508 7800
Website: https://www.pwg.com.au/
K Partners
K Partners Accountants & Financial Advisors, located in Melbourne, specializes in delivering personalized financial planning services. They emphasize a close-knit relationship with clients to thoroughly understand their unique circumstances and devise tailored advice and strategies. The team at K Partners is adept at outlining future financial goals and creating clear, actionable plans to attain them. Their bespoke approach takes into account each client's current financial status and focuses on identifying strategies for improvement. Key areas of concentration include minimizing taxes, enhancing cash flow, and managing superannuation portfolio growth effectively, all geared towards ensuring clients are well-equipped for a comfortable retirement. Furthermore, K Partners provides expertise in investment planning, helping clients build diversified portfolios across various asset classes and offering solutions to complex investment challenges.
Services provided by K Partners encompass:
- Retirement Planning: Conducting reviews and strategizing for retirement based on individual financial situations.
- Investment Planning: Guidance in creating diversified investment portfolios and providing sound investment advice.
- Wealth Creation: Educating clients on wealth creation strategies and the effective use of surplus cash flow for long-term investments.
Phone: 03 9863 8855
Email: info@kpartners.com.au
Website: https://kpartners.com.au/
Flinders Wealth
At Flinders Wealth, personalized financial planning is at the forefront of their services. They initiate the planning process by gaining a thorough understanding of the client’s lifestyle, financial ambitions, current financial situation, and the objectives they have for their finances. This comprehensive evaluation enables Flinders Wealth to design a clear and targeted financial vision for each client, concentrating on both the growth and safeguarding of their wealth. The financial plans they develop are detailed, with specific milestones set to track progress towards achieving the client’s desired lifestyle.
Flinders Wealth offers a range of services, including:
- Financial Planning: Crafting individualized financial plans based on each client's unique goals and financial circumstances.
- Ongoing Service: Providing consistent support and monitoring to ensure clients remain on course with their financial goals, which includes managing budgets and staying informed about changes in laws, taxes, and regulations.
- Investment Management: A strategy focused on long-term investment growth, compounding interest, minimizing transaction costs, and delaying capital gains tax.
- Insurance Planning: Creating plans to protect clients and their families financially in cases of illness, injury, or early death.
Phone: 0434 992 240
Email: michael@flinderswealth.com.au
Website: www.flinderswealth.com.au
FMD Financial
FMD Financial is renowned for its effective financial planning process, aimed at empowering clients and alleviating financial stress. Their methodology revolves around six fundamental pillars of advice, ensuring comprehensive consideration of clients' financial well-being. The firm's experienced team focuses on growing and protecting clients' wealth, both presently and in the future. Key areas of emphasis include goal setting, superannuation management, income and budgeting strategies, insurance, balancing assets and debts, and legacy planning. This holistic approach guarantees that clients receive a detailed financial plan tailored to their life goals and personal circumstances.
The array of services offered by FMD Financial includes:
- Goal Setting: Guidance in establishing and revising financial aspirations.
- Superannuation Advice: Strategies to enhance and maximize superannuation funds.
- Income and Budgeting: Fundamental to creating long-term, sustainable wealth.
- Insurance: Protective measures to safeguard clients' financial assets.
- Assets and Debt Management: Techniques to efficiently balance assets and debts.
- Financial Legacy Planning: Assistance in creating Wills and Estate Plans.
- Investment Management: Sophisticated investment services oversee over $2 billion in funds.
- Retirement Planning: Optimizing superannuation and retirement investment strategies.
- Tax Planning: Tactical approaches for tax-efficient investing.
- Property Advice: Consultations on property investment and purchases.
- Debt Management: Advice on debt strategies in collaboration with mortgage experts.
- Employee Share Schemes: Expert navigation of various share schemes.
- Financial Modeling: Integrating resources, strategies, and financial objectives.
- Estate Planning: Aligning clients' intentions with their financial plans.
Phone: 1300 134 187
Email: melbourne@fmd.com.au
Website: https://www.fmd.com.au/
Future Planners
Future Planners is a boutique financial planning firm that provides strategic advice and hands-on service across various aspects of financial planning. Boasting over 100 years of combined experience in financial planning, the team at Future Planners is committed to fostering long-term client relationships. They employ a client-focused approach, addressing a wide array of financial requirements from immediate concerns to comprehensive financial goal-setting and achievement.
The services offered by Future Planners include:
- Strategic Financial Planning: Developing customized financial plans based on individual client needs.
- Wealth Accumulation: Offering strategies to effectively grow wealth.
- Self-Managed Super Funds (SMSFs): Specialized management of SMSFs for enhanced control over retirement savings.
- Assessing Risk: Comprehensive evaluation and management of financial risks.
- Group Client Meetings: Organizing group discussions for collective planning.
- Investment Philosophy: Advising on investment strategies tailored to client preferences and risk profiles.
- Ongoing Reviews: Regular revisions of financial plans to ensure alignment with evolving client goals.
- Professional Partnering: Collaborating with other professionals to offer holistic financial solutions.
Phone: 03 9824 8622
Website: https://futureplanners.com.au/
Planning for Retirement
Planning for retirement can be complicated, regardless of your current financial situation. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, such as:
- When should you start collecting social security?
- When should you start pulling from investment accounts?
- Should you stop working?
- When is it too late to start investing money for retirement?
- How much money do you need to set aside so you can retire comfortably?
A financial advisor can help you plan for a successful retirement based on your income, lifestyle, and future plans. They'll tell you exactly what you need to do to make your goals a reality.
Managing Your Assets
One of the most important reasons to hire a financial advisor is if you have a high income or net worth. They can help you manage your wealth through various accounts, assets, and investments, as well as provide valuable information about planning for taxes. They can help guide you through the management process or take the reins with your permission, keeping you apprised before, during, and after each decision.
If you make a lot of money, you're also going to need help holding onto it rather than forfeiting a large portion over for taxes. A financial advisor can help you legally manage your funds to save as much of it as possible come tax season.
Understanding Investment Options
Another important role of a financial advisor is providing information and advice about investing. Many of us don't know much about stocks, bonds, IRAs, and other forms of investing. A financial advisor can put you on the right path for investing money for maximum financial gain.
This includes everything from tax-exempt bonds, real estate investments, business investment opportunities, taxable bonds, and more.
Planning for a Growing Family
Finally, many people find comfort in hiring a financial advisor when planning their life and future for a new or growing family. A growing family has a significant impact on your finances. You'll need a bigger home, a bigger or more practical vehicle, and more.
When raising children, you need to plan the costs of:
- The baby stage (cribs, diapers, safety modifications, etc.)
- Clothing
- Food
- Toys
- Education
- Activities
- Vacations
- Etc.
A financial advisor can help you plan for a future with a growing family to make sure you provide a full and enriching life for your children.
Typical job duties for a financial advisor include:
- Market research
- Market analysis
- Recruit and solicit clients
- Assess clients' needs and goals
- Recommend strategies
- Execute strategies
- Monitor accounts
- Identify new opportunities
- Follow Securities and Exchange Commission regulations
Financial advisors assist individuals with their investment strategies by assessing clients' financial situations and making recommendations. Advisors often execute strategies for clients. Clients' needs can be varied, including both short-term and long-term goals, and advisors will need to present a strategy that addresses all needs. For example, a client may want to build a retirement fund in addition to saving for children's college expenses that may be only a few years in the future.
To be successful, financial advisors need to have a deep understanding of investment markets and a knack for identifying the best stocks, bonds, or funds.
Recruiting new clients also is a big part of the job, especially when starting out. Financial advisors accomplish this through traditional advertising, mailings, or cold calling. They also might hold seminars on financial planning or speak at seminars held by others. As financial advisors build a client base, they can do more to build their business through word of mouth, assuming their current clients are happy with the investment advice they are receiving.
Individuals
In the case of an individual, a financial advisor can provide insight into how they can save more and build their wealth. This is often done by constructing a portfolio of investments that are well suited to the client's risk attitude. Some clients are more willing to take on risk if the prospect of a potential greater reward is more compelling to them than the prospect of potentially losing money.
Conversely, there are also clients who are more risk-averse and that would like a lower-risk portfolio, even if it means potentially lower returns.
Determining an individual's risk attitude may be difficult since an individual's risk attitude can depend on a great number of factors. Thus, a financial advisor may ask about things like the individual's age, income, marital status, indebtedness, or savings in order to gather a solid understanding of their client.
Companies
In the case of companies, financial advisors can help provide a second, neutral perspective on corporate development projects. For instance, if a company is considering expanding its operations by building a new factory, financial advisors can help assess the profitability of the project independently.
Once the advisor's assessment is concluded, they can present their findings to the company's management with the goal that their analysis will provide the company's leadership with a valuable second opinion.
Meet and compare financial advisers
Financial advisers don't usually charge you for the first meeting. This makes it easy to meet with a few different advisers to compare what they offer.
When you meet an adviser, ask them about:
- their qualifications, main client base, and specialty areas
- what fees you will pay, how often and what you'll get in return
- how they'll manage your money
- how often you'll meet
- what information you'll receive and how often
- how they'll consult you on decisions
- how they'll monitor and manage your investments
- what commissions or incentives they receive from financial products, and how they'll choose products to recommend to you
- who'll look after your account when they're away
- how they'll deal with complaints (see problems with a financial adviser to learn about the complaints process)
- how to end your agreement with them (including any penalties or notice periods)
A good adviser will get to know you, keep you informed, and help you achieve your goals. They'll also discuss how much risk you're comfortable with.
Choose the right financial advice for you.
A financial adviser can give you general financial advice. This type of advice doesn't take into account your personal situation or goals or how it might affect you personally.
A financial adviser can also give personal financial advice. This advice is tailored to your financial situation and goals and is in your best interests. It can include:
- Simple, single-issue advice — Help with one financial issue, for example, how much to contribute to your super or what to do if you inherit shares.
- Comprehensive financial advice — Help to develop a financial plan to reach your financial goals. This covers things like savings, investments, insurance and super and retirement planning.
- Ongoing advice — Regular monitoring and review of your financial plan and affairs.
Decide what you want from financial advice.
Before you get financial advice, decide what you want to get out of it. This depends on your stage of life, how much money you have, and what you're trying to achieve.
A financial adviser can help you make financial decisions and plan for the future. This might include advice about budgeting, investing, super, retirement planning, estate planning, insurance and taxation.
Finding the right financial adviser can take a lot of this weight off your shoulders, but giving someone access to one of the most sensitive parts of your life can be emotionally challenging.
As you hunt for a financial adviser, you're actually hiring someone to work for you. It's a job interview, so it's important to pay close attention to all the answers the adviser gives. And watch out for the "adviser" that a financial company provides to you for free. These advisers are usually riddled with conflicts of interest – they're more salespeople than advisers. That's why it's critical that you have an adviser who works in your interest.
If you're looking for an adviser who can truly provide real value to you, it's important to research a number of potential options, not simply pick the first name that advertises to you.