- Checklists are readily available.
- Perhaps create and/or customise checklists to suit your situation.
- Develop and maintain a regular checking cycle regarding your financial plan.
Checklists are a useful way to ensure you have covered your bases in terms of what you want from the financial planning process and any specific aspects you'd like your adviser to address. This doesn't have to be a labour-intensive process, provided that it becomes a habit.
Checklists can be simple once your financial plan is up and running, as shown in the following tables.
Checking your investment performance
| Question |
Answer |
Date |
Comments |
| |
Y |
N |
N/A |
|
|
| Have I conducted the necessary due diligence? |
|
|
|
|
|
| Did I monitor investment performance this week? |
|
|
|
|
|
| Are my investments behaving as predicted? |
|
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|
|
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| How are my investments tracking against my financial plan? |
|
|
|
|
|
| Am I focusing too much on short-term performance? |
|
|
|
|
|
| Have I looked at how similar investments are performing? |
|
|
|
|
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| Have I looked for other investments? |
|
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|
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| Have I given my investments and related strategies enough time to accurately assess their performance? |
|
|
|
|
|
What should a financial plan contain?
| Check that the financial planning is appropriate |
Yes |
No/unsure |
| Does the financial plan address all your goals? |
|
|
| Does the financial plan refer accurately to your assets, debts, income and expenses? |
|
|
| Optional: Does the financial plan provide advice about investment/superannuation? |
|
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| Does the financial plan explain your risk profile? |
|
|
| Conduct research of products and any comparisons |
|
|
| Check that the strategy makes sense |
|
|
| Do you understand why each strategy is appropriate for you? |
|
|
| Do you understand how or if your goals are likely to be achieved? |
|
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| Does the financial plan cover all the areas you asked for? |
|
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| Check that the products fit your strategy |
|
|
| Does the financial plan explain how each of the recommended products fit your strategy? |
|
|
| Optional: Does the financial plan recommend any superannuation or investment products? |
|
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| Does the financial plan explain why the recommended superannuation or investment products fit your risk profile? |
|
|
| Optional: Does the financial plan recommend replacing existing products? |
|
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| Does the financial plan explain the pros and cons of replacing existing products? |
|
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| Does the financial plan explain how you would be better off, overall, by replacing existing products? |
|
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| Check that you understand all the costs |
|
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| Does the financial plan explain all the fees for providing and implementing this advice? |
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| Are you aware of all upfront product or transaction fees? |
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| Are you aware of ongoing product fees or insurance premiums? |
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| Optional: Are you receiving ongoing advice? |
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| Are you aware of all the fees charged for receiving ongoing advice? |
|
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| Have you received fact find, PDS, FSG, risk profile? |
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