Listen to this episode here: Providing Affordable Financial Advice to ALL Australians

Welcome to TALKING NUMBERS with Paul Jansz. This is our CEO series, and we have a special guest Adem Becirevic, Director and Financial Adviser at Virtual Financial. This platform is delicate to providing affordable financial advice to all Australians.

Adem is a CPA qualified accountant. He has been in the industry for a long time. After running his own practice and co-founding another firm, he decided to move away from tax and home loans, and focus on financial advice.

With the regulations change recently, Adem sees the opportunities and the demands. At the moment, many clients need financial advice, but the fees are stopping them. Adem founded Virtual Financial, aiming to change the situation and provide affordable services for the clients.

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Listen to the highlight

 

Topics

  • Current status of the accounting industry
  • Changes after Royal Commission
  • Access to financial advising
  • Flexible working
  • The new model of acquisitions
  • Marketing
  • Outsourcing

Key Takeaways

There are a lot of advisors leaving the industry. I know the education requirements have changed. The banks have walked away from financial advice for retail clients. I think there are many opportunities for good advice out there, because there are going to be many clients out there that need it. A lot of firms these days just can’t afford to see clients who are not prepared to pay higher fees. But the whole idea of Virtual Financials, is we want to try and change that, and make financial advice affordable for our clients. – Adem

It has been quite fruitful in the markets in the last four or five years. And some people might have missed it. Some clients asked, why am I missing it, and my super never goes up much. I told her, it was because it was sitting in cash. Many people are not getting advice. Some people think the problem is that a commission fee for service is bad. But I think getting no advice is even worse. – Adem

There are certainly a lot of challenges for the industry. It’s also already causing an underinsurance problem. So it will put more pressure on the government as well. People aren’t insured, they haven’t got life insurance or whatever. You see these GoFundMe pages all the time, because people don’t have insurance, because they don’t have advice. – Adem

There’s a whole lot of compliance. You need to work to government compliance to make sure that you are ticking boxes. And unfortunately, with the financial services industry, it’s time-based. And you must do a SOA, a statement of advice, to be able to provide advice. -Paul

Zoom has made it very easy to get the couple together, to have a meeting anywhere, at the beach, at home, or at work. And I’m finding now the advice we provide is so much better, because we always have both parties in these days, we have the husband and the wife. – Adem

I think probably the most important lesson I’ve learned is to make sure you have the right people around you. You have the right professionals, and don’t do it yourself, like with marketing or lawyer. I spent a lot of money on marketing, and I think you just need to spend it. I know a lot of us in business, like to try and save every dollar we can. But I think that sometimes you have to spend money to make money. – Adem


Useful Links

Adem Becirevic’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smsfspecialistsouthport
Virtual Financial Website: https://virtualfinancial.com.au/


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Whether you are an aspiring investor or a business owner, it might be helpful to get professional advice to look after your asset. We wish you a strong start and hope our podcast can inspire you and connect you with other like-minded people. If you are interested in content like this, please follow us on LinkedIn. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please contact connect@theprofessionalpartners.com.au– let’s chat about it!