Issues and Solutions:

When evaluating your financial position it is important to consider whether you are financially secure for your future.  The Excelsior Program can help you solve any potential issues that you have.

What’s your problem?
Unfortunately most people think that they have to achieve their financial future on their ‘Pat Malone’, this couldn’t be further away from the truth.  Your wage is generally your sustenance; the assets you accumulate to grow in value over time provide the basis for your true wealth creation.

Question: Why is it that often we buy our first home, then upgrade to another and then maybe even another, yet when it comes to buying an Investment Property we shy away ‘Big Time’? 
Answer: Lack of knowledge – “knowledge empowers people”.

Question: When buying our own home there is no additional income stream and no tax deductions, just the full-on brunt of the repayments and expenses, etc etc etc.  When buying an Investment Property the out-of-pocket expense is minimal in comparison to owning your own home; however, so many people baulk at it; why? 
Answer:  FEAR

Fear generally comes from lack of understanding.  Everyday at FAA we spend the majority of our time educating clients on different facets of their financial affairs so as they feel comfortable to move forward and take the next step into their financial future.

Overcoming Fear = Education + Planning + Preparation = Confidence for Implementation + Evaluation = Excelsior Program

Education:
We spend the time working through and explaining in logical terms why our clients are in the position they are currently in.

We often use diagrams to explain the simple structures available to alter their situation if required. We use practical examples and tell lots of relative stories to identify that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We use facts and figures to clearly identify the reality of some situations and often to expose myths.  We have told many people that if they have a gut feeling, they should go to the hospital to have a colonoscopy or endoscopy to get rid of the problem/feeling in their gut.  We need to use a calculator for investing as investing is ALL about maths; it is about fact and reality, not fiction and maybe a ‘good hunch’.

Planning:
When creating a plan for you it is essential to first ‘clone’ your situation to take a realistic view of where you really will be in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years time if you ‘keep on keeping on’ the way you are currently progressing.  We particularly need to do this so as you have a true basis for comparison.

In your plan we always add in upfront your goals/wish-list as there has to be a reward and encouragement for effort.  If it was all about making money, honestly no one would do it as there is far more to life than making money and we all ‘need’ to have some balance in our lives.

We do comparative scenarios and strategies for both the major asset classes of property and securitised investments.  In our initial plans we never recommend any product, but it is more of a ‘what if’ or ‘what is possible’ type of plan encompassing every scenario that you would like to consider.

Preparation:
Once all of the planning has been done thoroughly, the preparation is mainly the collection and collation of documentation.  This is all process driven and is very simple provided the planning has been done professionally with particular attention to detail.

Confidence:
It is only at this stage that clients make the decision to proceed with a strategy, whether it be cash-flow, structure, asset acquisition or whatever is required to reach their goals.  If we have done our job properly, our clients will have had the required education to dispel their fears and will have the confidence to proceed.

Implementation:
Implementation of an Excelsior Plan is 100% process driven - It is just ‘one foot after the other’.  We will have prepared everything and you just ‘tick and flick’.  All obstacles that come up will have been accounted for and are dealt with as they arise as ‘Par for the Course’.

Evaluation (Review):
Unfortunately our clients are human and are NOT robots; so we review EVERY client on a monthly basis as emotion does creep in and human error can too easily occur.  The review process is very simple.  We convert most people’s complex structures into simple easy to manage structures.  Everything associated with the business part of your life is automated and your personal expenditure money is easily accessible and unconnected with bill paying, investments, repayments etc.

Excelsior Program:
We have combined all of the above plus much more into one simple program – the ‘Excelsior Program’. 

Another fantastic benefit from within the program is the cost; it is actually cash-flow positive for each client to go onto an Excelsior Program.  How?  The fee is invoiced to you and paid by the bank the same as stamp duty, legal fees, etc, so it has not come directly out of your pocket, but will be realised some 10, 15 or 20 years later from the capital growth when that particular investment is sold, and further when discounted for inflation, the fee is very minimal.

In the mean time, even though you haven’t personally paid out-of-pocket for the fee, you do get to claim it as a tax deduction, hence how you are cash-flow positive from the fees to implement the ‘Excelsior Program’.

Please contact us today for a free no obligation appointment where we can evaluate your individual situation and help you work through any financial issues.

Prepared by John Hehir Financial Advisers Australia (FAA).