"I've had a poor experience with my former adviser. After paying a lump sum of fees, I discovered they were not able to help me with certain things they had previously claimed. How do I know that a financial adviser is trustworthy and is qualified to help me with what I need?"
- Question from Jade in Kenmore, QLD
Top answer provided by:
Bob Nixon
Hi Jade,
My advice to you is to give it another try but this time ask more questions and don’t take the adviser’s ‘spiel’ as being the full story.
The regulations that cover the advice process require an adviser to give you a copy of his/her Financial Services Guide (FSG) at the first opportunity. Even before meeting in person you should be able to get this FSG from a target adviser’s website. The FSG sets out all the areas in which the adviser can deliver advice and if what you need is not listed, don’t go there. With a little bit of research on your part you can boost your chance of really finding out if you have a basis of joining with someone new.
Now at the first meeting listen carefully. Is the adviser asking about what you need and want, or are you simply getting a broad-brush spiel about “what we do” for people? There is an old saying that goes “don’t tell me what you know until you show me that you care”. You can prompt an answer to this by asking, “How do you feel you can help me?” or “Have you done this before with other clients?”. You can also ask for referrals to existing clients in a similar position as yourself, this might take some time to organise, but it is worth the wait.
The big question is, “Exactly what are you going to do for me and how much will that cost?”. Just make sure that the answer matches what the FSG says about how fees are determined and is aligned with your expectations.
Finally, I suggest that you take care to distinguish between enthusiasm and empathy, an adviser needs both and you need to decide how much of each is desirable.
Kind regards,
Bob Nixon
While the Adviser Ratings Website facilitates the question and answer functionality, all such communications are between users and authorised financial advisers, of which Adviser Ratings has no affiliation. Adviser Ratings is not the advice provider and does not provide financial product advice and only provides information that is general in nature.
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