An elderly woman and man are sitting at a table next to their retirement financial adviser.

Finding the right financial advice for retirees

Thursday, 22 December 2022

When it comes to planning your retirement finances, you need to find an adviser who can lend a helping hand with the right financial advice for you.

Seeking advice from a financial planner is essential if you’re looking to retire in the coming years. But ensuring you’re getting bang for your buck is also important.

Rachel Lane of Aged Care Gurus offers financial advice for retirees. She says finding the right adviser may be one of the most important decisions you make in your retirement planning.

Finding the right adviser

When it comes to financial advice for retirees, many advisers will say they specialise in retirement planning. But it’s important to understand what they mean by specialising. Usually, they’re talking about how best to manage superannuation, applying for an age pension and other key elements of financial planning for your retirement years.

What they’re usually NOT specialising in is retirement housing. Things like granny flats, retirement villages and land lease communities and their various financial implications.

Look for specialist retirement living financial advice

If you’re looking for a financial adviser to help you with retirement planning, you might want someone who understands:

the various financial planning strategies
pension and rent assistance implications
the amount you are likely to receive when you leave (which may be to move into aged care).

To get this kind of specialist advice, speak to a Retirement Living and Aged Care Specialist®. A Retirement Living Aged Care Specialist is a designation that recognises advisers who have the skills, knowledge and tools to deliver quality advice on retirement living and aged care.

How do you know if your adviser is a Retirement Living and Aged Care Specialist? Just ask. If they’re not, you may want to ask further questions like, ‘How long have you been advising people on moving to a Retirement Village?’

You should also ask about their qualifications. Ideally, you want someone who holds a Master of Financial Planning degree or is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).

A specialist knows the latest retirement living rules, products and services

Seeking advice from someone who doesn’t specialise isn’t necessarily going to mean that you don’t get the best advice. But it could mean the person won’t be up to date with the relevant rules and regulations. Or with new products or services in the market to best meet your needs.

It’s also likely that it will take them longer to research and develop your advice because they don't specialise. So if you’re paying based on time, it will cost more. This is what Rachel Lane calls ‘school fees’ because you’re paying for the adviser’s learning.

Seek advice from the people who are in the know

When planning for your retirement living, it’s important to make sure you understand all your options and the financial implications of each. Getting advice from a retirement living specialist who can help you understand will ensure you’re in a position to make an informed decision about how you want to live in retirement.

Learn more about Aged Care Gurus.

For more information about the lifestyle and support offered at our retirement villages, call our customer service team on 1800 550 550.

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