Risk Profile

So what is your investment risk profile?  

Your risk profile essentially relates to your attitude toward investment volatility and is really a measure of how comfortable you are with things like the possibility of negative returns on your portfolio, experiencing returns that might vary quite dramatically from year to year, and also the possibility that you might not achieve the returns that you need.  

Now it's important to understand the expected investment risk and likely returns of a asset class or strategy that you put together and also have it fit with your personal situation and your financial goals. Other factors to consider when we’re helping you to establish your risk profile would be your willingness or perhaps not, to accept the possibility of a negative return, obviously with the trade off being potentially higher returns over the longer term. Your investment goals and objectives; why are you investing your money? What are you hoping to achieve? Your investment time frame; after how many months or years are you going to need to access this money? What experience and understanding do you have of financial markets and also your age and the stability of your ongoing income are factor in determining what your risk profile really should be. 

In short, working with a specialist investment financial planner to establish your risk profile is a really key piece in terms of putting together your overall investment strategy.

When it comes to investments that could potentially impact on your family, it is vital that you seek appropriate financial advice from a licensed financial adviser.

There are no ‘one cookie cutter’ solutions for investments and factors that play on the returns you will see can be determined by your personal situation, so it is important to sit down and discuss these with an adviser.

Future Assist have Licensed Financial Advisers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast and can arrange your FREE initial consultation in the comfort of your home, in our office or via Skype.

Contact Future Assist today: 1300 118 618

Or, contact us on the Future Assist website here >

Future Assist Investment Strategy

A self-managed superannuation fund investment strategy is, depending on how look at it either a meaningless piece of box ticking or one of the most important steps in ensuring that your self managed superfund produces the best return on your capital possible. Deciding which you want it to be through on SMSF investment strategy is an important step in the process of setting up your fund and one you should give real thought to.

When determining which investments will be suitable for your retirement goals, it is important to enlist the services of a licensed SMSF professional who has experience with retirement planning. Future Assist are experts in helping Australians determine the right investment strategy to suit their retirement goals.

You know, following your instincts, picking out great options for a good return and all the other things you imagine yourself doing when you first decided to take control of your financial future..

Agood SMSF investment strategy is not just about fulfilling the legal requirements. It is about putting a plan in place that you can stick to and can help you navigate the complex investment fields you may be looking into.

Instead, look at your SMSF investment strategy as giving you a coherent shape to the balance of your portfolio allowing you to manage it in a way that meets your objectives and making it less likely that you will dive into bad investments. After all in what other work of life would you begin without a plan in place? If you were starting a business you would have done thorough market and competitor research, established the viability of the business and known and advanced on almost everything that was likely to happen on the first year or two for everything from battles to the likely pass of our lives.

Having an overall strategy is vital. 

Trying to work without one is like trying to navigate by map without having decided on a destination, you might enjoy the journey but you aren’t likely to end up anywhere useful. The same thing applies to your superannuation fund, you need to be clear from the start about exactly what you want out of it, what level of return do you want, what level of risk are you willing to expose yourself to, how long a term do you want your investments to be, and what areas do you plan on putting your money into. 

It is important to also plan around your level of risk tolerance. Some investments invariably have a higher risk associated with them. Depending on your stage of life and other internal and external factors, will determine the appropriate level of risk you should look at approaching your investments.

An effective investment strategy will also consider the administrative and compliance requirements of your investments and ensure your fund is fully compliant at all times and with all investments.

This is where a licensed professional can provide invaluable guidance that will help you ascertain which investment strategy will suit your goals.

If these sound like a basic considerations, that is because they are and yet if you don’t have a SMSF investment strategy it can be detrimental to your overall fund results. So make sure you have a SMSF investment strategy before you start to risk your money. Know what you want out of it and how you plan to get it, don’t just treat it as a boring chore that you are forced to complete. 

Treat it as an opportunity to give your portfolio a clear direction. In doing this you will quickly find that it has a far more coherent shape and will be an invaluable guide for choosing your investments for your SMSF.

Hopefully now you can see how important an effective investment strategy can be for your SMSF, and the importance of seeking professional licensed advice to help you administer your fund and ensure it is compliant.

Future Assist Financial Services Group specialise in self-managed superannuation (SMSF) administration, compliance and investment advice. 

Speak to a licensed adviser today on: 1300 118 618

SMSF TRUSTEE

Self-managed superannuation funds offer great benefits to those who have the ability or professional assistance to take advantage of these benefits. It is important to first note that setting up and running a SMSF is a major financial decision and making the wrong decisions can have lasting repercussions.

With this in mind, self-managed superfund operate in a very unique environment, they are tax-free environment. However they are not immune to going bankrupt, from going insolvent. If you’re self managed superfund, you are industry superfund, you are retail fund, they are all susceptible to going insolvent, now it’s unlikely they will because of the extremely conservative investment strategies that most people follow for example it’s very difficult to gear or borrow money in a self managed superfund and it’s very difficult to lend money to one of your members or to rather a party to the members. So why in this case, in this case the bank will go bankrupt as well and so can the insurance company, this is very true and fro the mouth of a 5 year old, you can go bankrupt and lose your money and that can happen for a superfund or self managed  superfund. However, what can one do if you are in a self managed superfund and you go bankrupt and you are in a self superfund, in that case you have to cease being the trustee or the director, now there are two ways to be part or run and operate a self managed superfund; either in your own individual name, so if you and your wife or you and your husband were in the self managed superfund under your own name, both of you would have to be the two trustees and both of you therefore will be the only two members, if you’ve opted to have a company or corporate trustee, a trustee that would therefore have the directors which are the members, so if you have three directors then you’ll have those three directors as the members and only those three people as the members, there is choice. However when people go bankrupt or you want to live overseas, there is a bit of a problem and without any changes to the law whatsoever the Australian Taxation Office for 6 months or  over, less than 12 months ago gave us a free kick, and said you are now able to do a special type of power of attorney which allows you, you are going to do it before you go bankrupt which will allow you have another person holding your attorney to look after your self managed superfund, to have central management control while you are out of seat, while you have unsound mind, while you are bankrupt, a huge opportunity you cannot let go, so if you are close to going insolvent then you may want to consider looking at doing these things. You will need to speak to a solicitor and get a kit on how to get one these special types of enduring powers of attorney. You cannot do it after you go insolvent because you can’t do that kind of attorney generally if you are insolvent, so think about the future, if you don’t do it then you’ll need to liquidate the position of the self managed superfund or give the fund to an APRA regulated fund, which first thing they will do is liquidate the position generally anyway. So self managed superfund’s are wonderful but you need to control them yourself and you can now thanks to the ATO, self managed superfund’s are wonderful but you have to keep the trustees pure and if you cannot do it yourself because you have unsound mind, going overseas for long periods of time or becoming insolvent or bankrupt then think about a special enduring power of attorney.

It is important to speak to a licensed financial adviser before making any financial decisions that could affect you and your family.  Future Assist are licensed to provide retirement planning advice. Speak to us today to arrange your free consultation regarding your financial planning requirements or to discuss whether or not a self-managed superfund would be appropriate for meeting your retirement goals..

Please consider the above as general information. It is not financial advice and has not been tailored to your personal financial position. Making decisions regarding your superannuation and retirement planning are major decisions that should not be taken lightly or without professional consultation.

Speak to a licensed financial planner today: Call us on 1300 118 618

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Super with Future Assist

Ok, so you're young and funky. And the idea of thinking about what you’ll be doing when you're 65 seems crazy. By the time that rolls around we might all be bowing down to a robot over-Lord or growing gills because global warming melted the ice caps. So why worry about it now. The word superannuation makes your eyes glaze over. And calling it super doesn’t make it much better. Super heroes maybe.  Super cool for sure. But superannuation... BlahBlahBlah.  

Still, can we at least agree on two things? Firstly money might not be everything but enough of it put a roof over your head. And something a bit better that instant noodles on the table. Secondly people are living longer and staying healthier. That means when you retire is a good chance that you’ll be fit and active.  And looking to do all the things that work was getting in the way of. Snowboarding, paragliding, releasing an album and working your way through the entire back catalogue of Sudoku.  And that’s what superannuation is really about. Planning for the party. Putting aside enough money so that when you retire you’ll be craving it up, not eating instant noodles. In fact this is so important that there is a range of legislation in place and legal requirements for employers to pay part of your earnings into your superannuation fund.  Nine percent in fact, and this figure is growing. It is recommended that you seek professional assistance when making large financial decisions, esspecially those that can have a big impact on your future. Future Assist are a licensed financial Advisory service that can help steer you in the right direction.

Why is this important? Because of the wonder of compound returns. Ok so with employee contributions of 9% and compound returns over your lifetime. Let’s say you have a superannuation nest egg of a few hundred thousand dollars. But before you go thinking that sounds nice. We need you to imagine a puffa fish cross with a piranha, because now we need to talk about inflation and this inflation has teeth, sharp little ones and chew away your money. Remember how your grandparents always going on about how that when they were young they had bought a car and a house for $10. And still had enough change left over to pick up the latest phonogram player. And you parents may still recall being able buy stuff with one and two cents pieces. No more as time marches on, prices increase. Or inflate. So your money is worth less and less. So you keep you out of range of the terrible Puffa piranha fish. It becomes even more important to make sure your superannuation savings end up more like a cash elephant than a cash cow. Because we all know that piranhas can strip a cow in under two minutes. 

There are three essential factors in aiming for the elephant.  One, start early. As you saw our example the longer your savings are earning returns the more gravy you get. Especially in the latter years. Two, make additional contributions, the more you add as you go the more you'll harness the power of compound interest. Not only that in some circumstances the government might even help you out with the co contribution. Three, maximize your returns. When it comes to maximizing your return, it depends on what risky you comfortable with. There is no need to just accept the default option if you are young, you have a long way to go to even that investment ups and downs. 
In most cases you have the choice of superannuation funds and also the kind of investment strategies that the superannuation fund will use with your money. You can also look into self-managed superannutaion (SMSF) . But higher rates of return are often more risky.  Investment returns depend on a whole range of factors including the global economy, interest-rate, exchange rate and market confidence. The rate of return on riskier investments on any given day can jump around radically.  And risk can be scary. Especially when you’re talking about money.

The above is provided as a general guide and should not be considered financial advice. Speak to a licensed financial adviser today about your situation, to see if your strategy lines up with your retirement goals and risk profile.