Prepared for Dianne Richardson
Deliverables below
Every piece is finished, written in your voice, and yours to keep regardless of whether we work together.
Your retirement plan might look affordable in an ordinary year. What happens in a difficult one?
An unexpected repair could mean taking more from your savings. If investments have also fallen, you may have less available at the same time that you need to spend more.
That's a reason to examine risk before you retire. You need to consider what you'd have available, and which spending decisions you could change if circumstances called for it.
At SWA Financial Planning, we examine what could go wrong before considering potential investment returns. We apply that approach to advice about your investments and retirement needs.
Click the link to enquire about our retirement-planning services. We can explain what's involved in a paid initial consultation.
When someone recommends an investment for your retirement, do you know how they're paid?
It's a reasonable question to ask. You should understand whether the firm receives payments from a product provider, as well as what you'll pay for the advice.
SWA Financial Planning receives no product commissions. We're owned by our staff, and our revenue comes from the fees our clients agree to pay us.
That structure is part of how we provide independent advice. You'll still want to understand why a recommendation suits your circumstances, what it costs and what risks it carries. We explain those considerations as part of the advice we give.
To find out more about working with an independent financial adviser, click the link.
Partner A: He asked whether we could help with the deposit.
Partner B: What did you say?
Partner A: That we'd talk about it. I want to help, but I don't know what we could manage.
Partner B: We have the savings. It's whether we'll need them ourselves later.
Partner A: Would you be more comfortable lending it to him?
Partner B: Only if he could repay it. I wouldn't want our retirement depending on him having a good year.
Partner A: Then we need to work out what we can afford without relying on that.
Narrator: Helping an adult child deserves a look at your own future needs as well. SWA Financial Planning advises on retirement and family wealth, including the financial implications of support you're considering.
Narrator: If you're weighing up a request from family, click the link to ask about our advice.
You'd like to give some money to your family now. How would that affect the plans you've made for later?
You may have decided how you want your estate divided, but a gift today can change how much is left. It may also change what feels fair between family members with different needs.
Then there's your own position. You still need to fund retirement and allow for support you may need as you get older.
SWA Financial Planning helps families consider financial support alongside retirement and estate-planning decisions. We can work through the financial implications and identify where legal input is needed before you proceed.
For information about planning gifts as part of your wider family finances, click the link.
You've worked out who could take over your business. Have you worked out how you'd pay for retirement afterwards?
A succession plan may deal with management and ownership, but your personal spending needs attention as well. Perhaps you'd retain an interest in the business, or receive money over time rather than all at once.
Either arrangement could affect when income reaches you and how much you can rely on. It needs to be considered alongside your savings and other commitments.
SWA Financial Planning advises business owners on complex structures and retirement. We help you consider how the proposed handover would affect your personal finances, as part of the advice work agreed with you.
Click the link to discuss planning your retirement around a business handover.
If retirement, investments, superannuation, family wealth and business interests are being considered in separate conversations, it can be hard to see how one decision affects the rest of the plan.
SWA Financial Planning helps people bring those decisions into one comprehensive financial planning relationship. The work can cover retirement and superannuation, investments, high-net-worth and intergenerational wealth, business-owner structures, estate planning, aged care and responsible investing where those areas belong in the situation.
An initial consultation is the first step. The current SWA contact page says to allow 1-2 hours for the first meeting, and a consultation fee of $550 applies with no ongoing obligation. This meeting is a general discussion before personal financial advice. It gives you a place to explain your goals, circumstances and current position, then decide whether further advice is the right next step.
The useful starting point is the real decision in front of you. You don't need to arrive with a finished plan or a perfect set of questions. Bring the decision you're facing: when work may change, how your super and investments fit together, what a business or trust means for personal retirement planning, or how family wealth and estate planning should be coordinated.
SWA's model is built around independence. The firm describes itself as a 100% staff-owned practice, receives no commissions or product-provider payments, and has no bank, insurer or other institutional owner. It operates under its own Australian Financial Services Licence, AFSL 241050. Its current site describes more than 40 years of client-first advice, with the practice established in 1982.
Independence is useful because it creates a clearer starting point for judgement. Before considering potential returns, SWA says its conservative approach asks what can go wrong. Investment risk remains part of the decision, and no particular result is promised. From there, the planning conversation follows a disciplined order: understand the situation, identify the trade-offs, then decide what advice is appropriate.
The firm publishes a typical annual financial planning range of $6,600 to $36,000, depending on the complexity of the situation and the nature of the advice and investments required. It's a typical range rather than a universal quote. If ongoing advice is suitable, the work and applicable fees should be understood for the actual situation.
The page below is designed for people who want to make a serious planning decision with the whole picture visible. It's especially relevant if retirement income, super, investments, business structures, estate planning or family wealth are connected in your life.
The question worth bringing to the call is how retirement, investments, business interests and family wealth fit together. You don't need to turn it into a technical brief before you ask it. A useful starting point is the decision in front of you, the time you have to make it and the parts of your financial position that may be affected.
The review should also leave room for different paths. You may keep working for longer, reduce your hours, change how you invest, help family or adjust what you expect to spend. No projection can predict every future event. Making the assumptions visible so you can see what would need to change if your priorities changed.
It's reasonable to ask what the advice process includes, what information the team needs and how recommendations are explained. You can ask how the proposed work relates to advice you already receive, whether your accountant or solicitor remains involved and what the fees would apply to. Ask those questions during your first planning discussion before you decide whether to proceed.
That first planning discussion can also separate decisions that need action now from decisions that can wait. If every issue is treated as urgent, a plan can't give you a useful order of priorities. A clear plan gives you a way to prioritise, revisit assumptions and understand what the next review is meant to answer.
It should leave you with a better question if the first question turns out to be too broad. That's still progress, because the next decision can be made with a clearer view of the information it actually needs.
You may also wonder whether advice is useful when you already have a super fund, investments or a plan of your own. That depends on the gaps in the current picture. The useful work may be checking whether the arrangements still match the goal, or understanding a decision you've been putting off. You might find that no further work is needed yet. A proper conversation should make that clearer.
The right fit is someone who wants the relevant decisions explained clearly and is prepared to share enough information for the advice to be personal. It won't suit someone looking for a guaranteed return, a product chosen before the circumstances are understood or a financial outcome that no adviser can promise.
If this is the question you want to work through, complete the form below this video and answer it as accurately as you can. Your answers help the team understand whether your planning discussion is relevant and what you would like to discuss. The planning conversation should make the next decision clearer, not create another layer of uncertainty.
Complete the short form below and explain the question you want to work through. You can then decide whether an initial consultation with SWA is the right next step. Every situation is different, and the call exists to establish fit, identify the important questions and make the next decision with better information.
Thanks for arranging an initial conversation with SWA Financial Planning.
Most people arrive with one decision they want to understand. It might be how investments and super fit with retirement income, how a business or trust affects personal wealth, or what needs to be considered before family assets are passed on.
The first consultation is a general discussion about your goals, circumstances and current position. It sits before personal financial advice and gives you a practical place to explain the situation, ask questions and decide whether further advice is appropriate.
SWA works across retirement, investments, superannuation, high-net-worth and intergenerational wealth, business-owner structures, estate planning and related areas where they belong in the wider picture.
The current contact page says a consultation fee of $550 applies and there's no ongoing obligation. If ongoing advice is suitable, the work and applicable fees are discussed for your situation.
Have a look at the short clips below. They cover the questions people commonly bring to the call and the information that makes it more useful.
Investments and super are often the most visible parts of a financial plan. Retirement income, tax structures, insurance and estate planning can affect the same future.
Those areas can change what needs to be held, protected or passed on. A trust, company, property or business interest can add another layer when it's part of the situation.
Start with the decision you want to make. Once you've named it, the adviser can help identify which parts of your financial life belong in the same conversation.
An initial consultation is a practical place to explain the connections and work out whether SWA's comprehensive advice is a fit.
Retirement planning is easier to discuss when it starts with the life your assets need to support.
You might be thinking about when work will change, what regular expenses may look like and which assets need to remain accessible. Those answers give the investment and super decisions a clearer purpose.
You don't need a perfect forecast for the call. Bring the assumptions you're using now, and the adviser can help identify the questions that need closer attention.
The point is to consider retirement income beside the assets, structures and family decisions that may affect it. No one can promise a particular investment result, but the wider plan can make the trade-offs easier to see.
SWA's initial consultation costs $550 and carries no ongoing obligation.
Its current FSG says ongoing financial planning services typically range between $6,600 and $36,000 per annum, depending on the complexity of the situation and the nature of the advice and investments required. It's a typical range rather than a universal quote.
If further advice is suitable, SWA explains what the work would cover and the applicable fees for your situation. Ask which decisions the advice is intended to support and what the next step would involve.
Fee clarity belongs in a sound planning decision.
Bring the question you most want answered and any documents that help explain where things are.
Recent super or investment statements can be useful. If a trust, company, property or business interest affects the question, bring the information you already have about that as well.
You don't need every figure organised. A clear sentence about the decision in front of you gives your planning discussion a useful starting point.
The initial consultation is there to understand the situation, identify the important questions and decide whether SWA is the right place to take them further.
Start with the question you need answered
Preview: A useful call begins with the decision in front of you.
Send: Immediately after booking
Hi there,
Thanks for arranging an initial consultation with SWA Financial Planning.
Before your planning discussion, write down the one question you most want to understand. It might be how your investments and super fit together, what your assets need to support in retirement, or how a business, trust or property affects the wider plan.
You don't need a finished brief. Bring the situation as it's, and your planning discussion can help identify which questions deserve attention and whether further advice is appropriate.
SWA Financial Planning
What belongs in the same financial plan?
Preview: Separate accounts can still affect the same financial future.
Send: Day 1, morning
Hi there,
Investments, super, estate planning and structures may be reviewed in different places.
They can still affect the same future. A retirement-income decision can change the investment question. A trust, company or property can change the estate and family-wealth questions around it.
Bring those connections into your planning discussion. They give the adviser a more useful place to start.
SWA Financial Planning
What will your assets need to support?
Preview: Retirement planning needs a clear view of the life ahead.
Send: Day 1, afternoon
Hi there,
Retirement planning starts with the life you want your assets to support.
Think about when work may change, the income you expect to need and which assets should remain accessible. From there, investment and super decisions have a practical job to do.
A rough answer is enough for the call. It gives the discussion a direction, and the detail can be worked through from there.
SWA Financial Planning
When wealth spans generations
Preview: Retirement, family wealth and estate decisions can connect.
Send: Day 2, morning
Hi there,
For families planning across generations, retirement, investments and estate decisions can affect one another.
SWA's whole-picture planning brings those questions into one conversation. You can start with the decision in front of you and work out which parts of the family picture belong alongside it.
The initial consultation costs $550 and carries no ongoing obligation.
SWA Financial Planning
When business and family wealth connect
Preview: Business, trusts and property can change the retirement conversation.
Send: Day 2, afternoon
Hi there,
For a business owner or established family, the personal financial plan may sit beside a company, trust, property or future succession decision.
Those questions are easier to assess when the connected pieces are visible. You don't need to be preparing a sale or a major change before asking how the parts fit together.
Bring the structure that shapes the question, and start there.
SWA Financial Planning
What belongs in one financial plan?
Preview: Retirement, investments and family wealth rarely move in isolation.
Hi there,
Retirement, investments, superannuation and estate decisions are often reviewed at different times.
They still affect the same financial future. A change to retirement income can alter the investment question, while a trust or property can change the estate and family-wealth questions around it.
Start by putting the connections on one page. It becomes easier to see which decision needs attention first.
SWA Financial Planning
What does independent advice change?
Preview: Independence is useful when it changes how recommendations are selected.
Hi there,
SWA Financial Planning describes itself as truly independent and a 100% staff-owned practice. The firm says it receives no commissions or product-provider payments and has no bank, insurer or other institutional owner.
Investment risk remains part of the decision, and outcomes can't be guaranteed. Your planning discussion can start with your goals, circumstances and trade-offs rather than a restricted product list.
SWA Financial Planning
What will your assets need to support?
Preview: A retirement plan needs a clear view of the life it's meant to fund.
Hi there,
Retirement planning becomes clearer when it starts with the life you want your assets to support.
Think about when work may change, the income you may need and which assets should remain accessible. That gives investment and super decisions a practical purpose.
A perfect forecast isn't required to ask a useful question. Start with the decision you can see coming.
SWA Financial Planning
Complexity goes beyond the account balance
Preview: Structures and family decisions can be as important as the account balance.
Hi there,
A household's planning work may involve super, investments, trusts, companies, property, estate planning or a business interest.
The important question is how the connected decisions can be understood together and adjusted as circumstances change.
That's where a whole-picture planning conversation can be useful.
SWA Financial Planning
When wealth spans generations
Preview: Retirement, investments and family wealth can belong in one conversation.
Hi there,
For an established family, the financial question is rarely isolated to one account.
Retirement income, investments, superannuation, estate planning and family wealth can all run on different timelines while still affecting the same future.
The planning process starts with the decision you want to make, then brings the connected pieces into view.
SWA Financial Planning
Every asset above plugs into one place in this flow. Once it's running, the only thing you see is qualified bookings on your calendar.
We handle every piece of the build, deployment, and the first 30 days of campaign management. You film, we run.
If yours isn't here, it's the first thing we'll cover on the call.
