I realized traditional financial planning was broken when I kept seeing the same pattern. Clients paying upfront fees for two mandatory meetings before receiving any actionable advice.
The industry had turned guidance into a luxury good.
When everyday Aussies need financial help but can’t justify the lengthy process and costs, they turn to YouTube videos and friends. Neither provides personalised advice, and both create dangerous information cycles.
The friends giving advice are also avoiding financial planners. They’re copying and pasting generic information, passing it off as wisdom.
This creates a feedback loop of misinformation that I see destroying client wealth daily.
The Real Cost of Bad Advice
When clients finally reach my office after years of informal advice, I spend considerable time breaking down previously held beliefs. I explain concepts like negative gearing, return on investment, budgeting, and tax implications they never properly understood.
The most dangerous advice I encounter? The universal belief that property investment equals wealth building.
People feel pressured to invest without end goals or strategy. They find any property in a “good suburb” and invest without considering tax implications, rental income, or long-term planning.
One client in his 40s had invested in a unit that halved in value while costing him $20,000 annually in negative gearing. His mortgage exceeded the property value, yet he wanted to hold on hoping it would break even eventually.
Another pre-retirement client owned five mortgaged properties with combined repayments exceeding $100,000 yearly. His entire retirement income would service debt, with no backup if tenants stopped paying.
Both situations existed without exit strategies because they’d absorbed the “property always goes up” mythology.
The Scale of Exclusion
The industry’s gatekeeping has global consequences. 2.5 billion people worldwide don’t use formal financial services due to costs and requirements.
In Australia, the property obsession has reached crisis levels. 49.4% of property investors are negatively geared, collectively losing $10.4 billion annually.
Meanwhile, technology is making traditional models obsolete. Robo-advisory markets are projected to explode from $2.5 billion to $16 trillion by 2030.
People want instant, personalised guidance. Traditional planning’s lengthy processes can’t compete with digital expectations.
Breaking Down Barriers
I offer one-off $475 consultations to lower the entry barrier for everyday Aussies accessing financial advice before making costly mistakes.
This aligns with research showing that 80% of Australians would be willing to pay $500 or less for financial advice, according to the Adviser Landscape report. Most clients proceed to comprehensive planning afterwards because they finally understand the value.
The solution isn’t abandoning professional guidance. It’s making quality advice accessible before people resort to dangerous alternatives.
Traditional financial planning created its own obsolescence by pricing out the people who need help most. The industry that survives will be the one that removes barriers instead of building them.
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