1. Make an appointment

The first step in the financial planning process is to make an appointment to meet with the financial planner (usually arranged over the phone). At this stage, you're likely to be asked a little bit about the reason for making the appointment, so be prepared to provide your reason. You're also likely to be asked to pull together some key information before the meeting, which will help your financial planner provide you with personal advice.

This information typically includes:

• Details about your employment and income
• Your budget (if you have one)
• Your latest superannuation statements
• Details about assets and investments you own, including current valuations
• Details about your debts, including personal loans, credit cards or mortgages
• Details about any personal insurance you hold
• Your most recent tax return.

If you've completed the Strategy Stacker's Starting Position exercise from Chapter 6, take that along too — it will contain many of the details listed here, as well as a wider picture of your financial position.

2. First meeting

The first meeting is where you sit down with the financial planner and start talking about who they are and how they can help you, as well as your financial situation. Some financial planners have a different name for this meeting — it might be called ‘The fact find meeting’, ‘The discovery meeting’ or ‘The kick-off meeting’, for example.

Your financial planner will likely lead the conversation, and you can expect to cover these areas:

• Who the financial planner is and more about their business
• How their specific financial planning process works
• Your short-term goals (one to two years), your medium-term goals (three to four years) and long-term goals (five + years)
• Your current financial situation, based on the information you brought along to the meeting and any additional questions your financial planner might ask
• Your attitudes towards risk and return
• The strategies they might consider to help you.

Of course, this is your opportunity to find out information too, so don't be afraid to ask questions about their areas of advice and service, their process, their qualifications and experience, and how they charge their clients for the advice and service that they may also provide to you.

As technology improves, it's likely that an increasing number of financial planners will offer internet video meetings rather than face-to-face meetings. However, I'd always recommend that your initial meeting is face to face so you can start to build a strong relationship. I do use video-conferencing technology in my business where possible — it's easy to use once you know how — but there's a lot to be said for the face-to-face meeting.

Finally, make sure the financial planner provides you with a Financial Services Guide (FSG) and Adviser Profile. It's a legal requirement to do so, and if they don't I'd suggest you find an alternative financial planner. (An FSG provides you with information about the entity and financial planner that will be providing the financial advice. It should explain the advice and services offered to clients, how they charge for the advice and service provided, and how any complaints are dealt with.)

3. Assessment and plan preparation

This step in the process happens largely without you being present. In this stage, the financial planner looks at your goals and reviews your financial life on paper to assess your position. They will spend time looking at appropriate financial planning strategies and how they can put them together to help you achieve your goals. Simply, they are working out the best strategy stacks for you. If the financial planner needs any more information or wants to clarify something, they may contact you during this stage.

Once they have the strategies in place, they will then consider appropriate structures and financial products (if required) that can be used to help you realise your goals. These are often referred as product recommendations. They could cover specific vehicles, investments, superannuation funds or insurance products.

Product recommendations should never come before a financial planner has done a thorough assessment of your situation, so be alarmed if they do. It's about finding the right product for you, not making you fit into a product. You'd never purchase a brand of tyres and later try to fit them to your car!

The kind of planner you use will determine how widely they look at suitable financial products. Bank financial planners, for example, may recommend their own bank's financial products. More independent financial planners will look more widely at the marketplace to find the best products available. Be sure your advice can be implemented using assets and products appropriate to you and with appropriate costs. Refer to the Framing Strategies (Chapter 9), Investment Strategies (Chapter 10), Superannuation Strategies (Chapter 11), Retirement Strategies (Chapter 12), Wealth Protection Strategies (Chapter 13) and Estate Planning Strategies (Chapter 14) as you need to.

A good financial planner should be able to provide you with an understanding of how the assets, products and policies they've chosen help you achieve your goals. They should also provide comfort that the costs are appropriate when compared to other similar products or policies within the marketplace. One of the objectives of me writing this book was to enable you to have better informed and more productive conversations about financial planning strategies with your financial planner. The chapters in Part 3 (chapters 9–14) might be a great starting point for a conversation about your personal situation and can be a useful reference point to come back to over time.

4. Second meeting

The second meeting is where you meet the financial planner again to hear the strategies they recommend you use to achieve your goals. Some planners have a different name for this meeting —it might be called ‘The plan meeting’, ‘The strategy meeting’ or ‘The presentation meeting’, for example.

The primary objective of this meeting is for the financial planner to demonstrate to you what your options are, based on your current financial situation. They will offer one or more specific personal financial advice recommendations. These will include financial planning strategies and, depending on the kind of advice, they might also make specific financial product recommendations for your personal situation.

It's very important that you understand the strategies being implemented and how they will help you achieve your goals. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand something. It's also a good idea to put the strategies in your own words and play them back to the financial planner to check your understanding. You might do this by saying something like: ‘Okay, what I think you're saying is that if we do “X”, we'll increase the likelihood of reaching “Y”. Is that correct?’

The financial planner is likely to walk you through the key elements of the financial plan as well as provide you with a copy of the financial plan in writing (I guide you through a typical financial plan later in this chapter).

It's important that you understand the plan and that you're comfortable with the strategies and recommendations before you implement any of them. If financial products have been recommended to you, your financial planner should also provide you with a Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) for each investment, superannuation or insurance product they've suggested. The PDS is a document provided by the product provider and details how their product works, including any fees and charges.

5. Implementation

If you're happy with the advice that your financial planner has provided in the second meeting, the next stage of the financial planning process is where you put the plan into action. Your financial planner should guide you through this process, including the paperwork that needs to be completed before you can proceed. You will need to sign the paperwork before implementation can take place. This may occur at the end of or after the second meeting.

This stage is also an opportunity to ask questions if you still have them. If there's something you don't understand, make sure you don't implement your financial plan until you do. It is essential you understand the advice before you implement it. You should be comfortable that the advice provided will help you achieve your goals.

It's important to also note that implementation doesn't mean that you invest all your money right now. It could take a while to implement your overall plan, depending on the structures you're using and the market conditions at the time. For example, if your financial planner recommends investing through a trust, or setting up a new account-based pension at retirement, it's going to take some time to set up before you can make an investment through it. A good financial planner will outline to you how and when implementation will occur so you have certainty throughout the process.

Often, the financial planner or their staff will check in with you from time to time if it's a particularly long or complex implementation process. They also will let you know when implementation is completed.

6. Review your progress

Assessing and reviewing progress is an important part of your financial plan. Some planners have a different name for this step — they might call it ‘The review meeting’, ‘The progress meeting’ or ‘The assessment meeting’, for example.

Without this step, you won't know how much progress you've made towards your goals. Your financial planner will suggest an appropriate time frame in which to review your progress. An annual review for investment performance is the industry standard; however, if your financial affairs are more complex, you might expect quarterly or half-yearly reviews. Reviews may also arise due to legislation changes or if a specific life event occurs that creates a need for an additional meeting.

At the review meeting, your financial planner will identify the progress made towards your previously stated goals. This usually includes reviewing your superannuation and investment performance, as well as the insurance you have in place. If the planner believes something needs to change, they will provide you with new recommendations for your review and consideration. This might include new or modified strategies, or new or alternative financial products. Just like the second meeting, it's important that you understand any changes before you agree to implement them. Implementing any new recommendations can occur at the end of your review meeting or shortly thereafter once you've provided the go ahead.

It's also important to share with your financial planner at this meeting any changes to your situation that are likely to impact on the achievement of your goals. Sometimes your circumstances in life will change, and these changes need to be considered. If a major change has occurred, like a marriage or divorce, your financial planner might need to revisit your original financial plan and re-cast the plan. Smaller changes or additions can usually be dealt with through a ‘record of advice’, which simply documents the reason for the change to your strategy, the strategy itself and any new personal financial advice recommendations.