FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you can! However some of our Advisers are currently “full”. When our advisers are ‘full’, this simply means that they have no capacity to see additional clients without impacting our promise to our clients who have subscribed to our ongoing advice. We place these relationships as our priority. Once we are engaged, we will seek to preserve this relationship with your trusted adviser for the duration of your journey.

Transactional or “one off engagements” are available subject to our availability. However, our focus is developing on-going retirement plans, and long-term relationships with our clients are our focus.

If you’re a young working professional with goals for the future, we can help you put a financial plan in place to help you become a wealth builder. It’s wise to start early – that’s the way to ensure the majority of your savings balance comes out of investment returns rather than your own pocket. Just a few years can make a huge difference due to the power of compounding returns, leaving more of your future income to become spending money. It’s also the best time to lock in a good deal on insurance.

When it comes to insurance, we are one of the few firms who do not work on a commission basis. We charge you a fee to do the work, then come up with a pragmatic needs analysis to make sure you have the right cover. Non- commission insurance policies are typically 25% cheaper and this can add up to many thousands of dollars over the life of your policy.

Whether you’re thinking about life insurance, starting a family or upgrading your home, our straightforward advice will help you make better and more informed decisions. The best time to start planning is now – so make a time for a chat with us about becoming a wealth builder.

Former UK residents or indeed anyone who has worked in the UK for three years or more may be entitled to the UK State Pension. The Basic State Pension is effectively a UK government retirement benefit and is the equivalent of our Centrelink system – without a means test. Too often, those entitled to it miss the chance to make valuable changes to their pension scheme enabling them to reap the benefits.

At Bruining Partners, we take the time to understand your overall situation and have assisted many clients to significantly improve their retirement income by looking beyond their superannuation balance. We can help you understand how the UK Pension interacts with Centrelink, and along with super, help you put your retirement income together. We explore every available means to maximise your financial position.

When you make your first inquiry, either by phone or via the contact page, we will follow up with a few questions about why you are seeking our advice and your current circumstances. Once we have determined that we are well positioned to assist you, we’ll make you an appointment with one of our qualified Financial Planners and send you an information pack.

This contains:

  • Our Financial Services Guide (FSG) with information about our License and your Financial Planner
  • Our fee structure
  • A checklist of what to bring with you to your initial consultation
  • Directions to our office

The first meeting with your Financial Planner is a chance to discuss your current situation. This consultation will usually take at least 90 minutes. We do charge a fee for our time in this consultation meeting.

We want to take the time to understand your situation and highlight any risks and potentially relevant options or strategies and determine whether we are the right financial planners for you.

It is important to note that in this first meeting we are legally unable to provide personal financial advice, as this must be provided in writing in the form of a Statement of Advice(SOA) document – which is the next step in the process.

At the end of the meeting, we will agree on the next step. There is no obligation to proceed further if that was all you needed. If we agree to provide advice, we will prepare a Letter of Engagement with a quote, in dollars, to prepare your Statement of Advice.

We charge a fee of $550 for your initial consultation. Some firms offer a “free initial consultation”, but this usually means they may have an alternate motive to ‘sign you up’ or sell you some form of financial product to make a living. We believe this may negatively impact their ability to act in your best interest.

Should you decide to continue with us after the initial consultation, we will provide you with a quote for a flat fee for our services depending on your personal situation. Our Financial Services Guide, available upon request, provides more information about the typical range of fees charged.

Our pricing structure is clear and transparent. We have no incentive to sell any financial products. Because you are the only one paying our fees, we don’t get paid extra if you take out more insurance or put more money into super. Due to our flat-fee structure, we also remain unbiased when assessing any pre-existing investments.

We have a range of different payment options. Where appropriate and available, you may be able to request our fees to be deducted from your superannuation or investment accounts. We do not accept payment by credit card.

Bruining Partners is a privately owned Western Australian company which has its own Financial Services License. There are no ownership links to any fund manager or other organisations.
This means our advice isn’t influenced by any ownership links, referral fees or kickbacks. We are one of a handful of firms in Australia providing financial planning advice on a completely transparent basis that does not rely on percentages or commissions.

No. High returns can only be achieved by taking high risk. Our objective is to provide greater certainty in planning for your future, and a high-risk investment strategy goes against that philosophy.

Of course, our personalised portfolio management approach seeks to improve your long-term-average returns, given your risk tolerance – however, we will not be making any promises about investments that are sure to do better than others.

Please contact The West, Channel Seven or ABC directly with regard to articles or comments Nick makes on TV or radio in his capacity as a media contributor.

Contact us today to arrange an appointment