Ask RiotACT: Financial advisor recommendations

As you may well have worked out based on your question, anyone who can only discuss residential property investments is not a financial planner but a real estate agent.

Whoever you choose, my advice is to make sure they’re independent and not owned by or tied to a single financial institution. They should also have a transparent fee structure. I’ve heard some shockers regarding financial planners making huge commissions from recommending certain products that are far too risky for the investor’s risk profile.

If you don’t already have investments, Phil Thompson from Rise Financial in Monash might be a good choice. Otherwise I’ve heard good things about Michael Snape from Federation Financial in Ainslie.

Hi mate,

I have always heard good things about Maciej Stanek from Freedom Finance

Your best bet would be going to http://www.adviserratings.com.au/ this website rates all advisors. From what I understand the website is independent. But i would suggest you investigate it yourself

If you are in industry super fund, talk to their financial planner for rational advice. If your planner doesn’t first establish how risk averse you are, you are talking to the wrong person.

For many years I was a strong financial planner sceptic. With good reason as there are a lot of charlatans out there. But over the past year I have been working with Michael Miller at the MLC Centre. He has shown me quite a few things that I didn’t know about, and has also given me a good strategic look at where I am tracking financially. He also really understands the PSS super scheme. https://www.mlc.com.au/personal/advice/mlc-advice-centres/find-an-adviser/act/canberra/who-are-we

Steve Heppenstall at Paterson’s Securities is awesome. Has done great things for my dad with SMSF, stock market investments and general financial planning (in conjunction with an excellent accountant)

http://www.psl.com.au