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Services


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Services


Service overview

Wealth management, insurance broking and private banking can mean many things depending on the underpinning strategy. At Snowgum Financial Services the following advice can fall out of any engagement;

  • Comprehensive financial planning

  • Investment services – portfolio construction and asset allocation

  • Superannuation – retail and self managed superannuation funds

  • Personal insurance – life insurances and income protection insurance

  • Business insurance – key person cover and share (buy /sell) insurance cover

  • Group insurance – employer life and income protection insurance plan

  • Financial Modelling – analytical modelling and data analysis for existing clients

  • Private Banking – complex loan structuring that brings together a clients world view delivers tremendous value. We may refer simple loan structures to an external mortgage broker.

Advice process

All advice begins with a thorough analysis of your circumstances, where we work together to understand your situation, goals and objectives, and define the scope of work you require. If the scope of work is comprehensive, we will issue a terms of engagement.

If in agreement, a statement of advice will be prepared, detailing recommended strategies. A statement of advice is the formal document that outlines smart strategies around asset ownership structures and how to best manage investments, structure debt and mitigate risks (both personal and financial).

Strategic considerations may involve a combination of personal, trust, company or superannuation entity use; Striving to maximise the balance between tax minimisation and cost efficiency, in conjunction with your accountant. We can provide specific cash flow, debt structuring, personal insurance and investment strategies that assist you in making smart financial decisions.

With agreement from you, Snowgum Financial Services will implement these strategies and engage other professionals when required, bringing your financial plan to life.

“Implementing a good financial plan can be like trying to move a freight train. It can be a lot of heavy lifting initially, but if put in place on the right track initially, over time it runs smoothly and efficiently” - Matt Vickers

It is important to make sure your wealth strategies remain on-track and appropriate to your changing lifestyle needs. Reviews can be done as often as required. Should your circumstance or needs change, our advice process is flexible to accomodate changing needs. Should a smarter strategy emerge due to regulatory or external change, we will proactively engage with you to introduce ongoing strategic advice.

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Wealth


Wealth

Wealth


Wealth

Managing client wealth is a responsibility that we take seriously.

Successful wealth management requires the formulation of a realistic and robust plan, having the discipline and patience to follow planned strategies and knowing when to review and modify your plan to accommodate changing circumstances - both those within your control and outside it. It is our job to assist you in all the stages of your wealth creation, from planning to implementation, regular monitoring and review. Irrespective of your stage in life, the prudent management of your financial affairs will provide you with peace of mind, while affording you greater opportunity to focus on personal and business ambitions.

Investment Philosophy

Our philosophy to your investment considerations is as follows;

We put investors first

When a firm puts investors first, they win in the long term because their investors win.

WHY IT MATTERS: Financial services companies that promote their own high-cost funds over cheaper alternatives or allow conflicts of interest to hijack their actions, do not have investors’ best interests in mind.

Snowgum Financial Services doesn’t have in-house funds filter investment manager decision based on a robust framework, of which a jey determanent is long-term manager performance alignment.


We are independent-minded

As Howard Marks said "to get a different outcome to the market, you must must do something different to the market".

"Diversification protects wealth, concentration grows it" - Warren Buffet. An independant minded adviser might question why many portfolios are over-diversified. Balancing concentrated positions, where businesses are attractive, within a risk managed framework can deliver differentiated outcomes. Further, we are also happy to allow positions to concentrate over time should performance deliver this outcome.

We incorporate private equity and alternate assets where liquidity profile affords.

WHY IT MATTERS: Herding is commonplace in investing. It generally delivers average results in normal times and be destructive during booms and busts. Meeting your investment goals may often mean acting independently from the herd.


We invest for the long term

Taking a patient, long-term view helps people ride out the market’s ups and downs and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

WHY IT MATTERS: Investors often overemphasize the importance of recent events, rushing into hot stocks when they’re overpriced and fleeing from market downturns. Investors can fight this common error by focusing on long term lessons and long-term performance. Our investment decisions concentrate on fundamental, long-term value drivers, selecting investments or asset managers we believe we can and should hold for the long haul, then measuring how long we hold them in practice.


We are value and investment thematic investors

Anchoring decisions to an investment’s fair value—or what it’s really worth—can lead to greater potential for returns. Doing this within industries that have positive macro-drivers makes this even more meaningful.

WHY IT MATTERS: Our minds are hard-wired to find patterns in everything, but much of the market’s daily volatility is just meaningless noise. Researchers have found that in the long term, the underlying value of a company, relative to its price, drives performance.

Snowgum Financial Services uses an assessesment of an investments relationship between current price and intrinsic value, to help minimize the cognitive impact of short-term fads and noise. We will often use concentrated, active management that emloys a value investment philosophy within our portfolio construction process. We rely on external, independant research houses to provide this service.

Finally, we prefer to take overweight positions in long term opportunistic industries. Key themes of note are the rise of A.I., the convergence of technology and health sciences, healthier living, an ageing population and renewable energy.


We take a fundamental approach

Powerful research is behind each decision we make, and we understand what drives each investment we select.

WHY IT MATTERS: Researchers find that investors base decisions on dangerous shortcuts: from the spelling of fund managers’ names, to whether friends have mentioned a particular company before. Investors use these meaningless characteristics to judge whether an investment is worthy and then concoct convincing stories about why these investments are good, and subtly seek out data that confirms those conclusions.

Snowgum Financial Services structures analysis around fundamental characteristics of each company, including its cash flow, balance sheet, and potential for a sustainable competitive advantage—to keep our focus on facts that really matter.

We leverage research houses to provide this capacity and will employ suitable asset managers that abide by these principles.


We strive to minimise costs

Controlling costs helps investors build wealth by keeping more of what they earn.

WHY IT MATTERS: Investors face a barrage of information, and our minds tend to focus on one or two narrow characteristics. So, investment companies rarely highlight their fees to avoid investor scrutiny. But, while returns are volatile and uncertain, fees aren’t: they will eat away at an investor’s money.

Snowgum Financial Services targets funds for investments that have fees in the least-expensive quartile of their respective categories, and purchases wholesale lower-cost versions of funds where possible. Where portfolio scale allows, we will recommend high conviction positions in direct international and domestic equities as well as facilitating direct bond and property exposures, stripping out funds management fees.


We build portfolios holistically

To help manage risk and deliver better returns, we combine investments with different underlying drivers into truly diversified portfolios. In particular, we think private market opportunities provide material improvements in risk and return outcomes for clients.

WHY IT MATTERS: Diversify what you cannot see. Nobody has reliably predicted short term market movements. Diversification, or the careful selection of a range of investments that aim to minimize unpallitable volatilty, helps manage company specific risk and when amongst asset classes, market noise. Although our minds like compelling stories—stories about companies, strategies, and managers. Stories often only serve to make us more comfortable without addressing risk. Managing risk effectively, with realistic expectations, is the only way to ensure you achieve your goals. In particular, when you manage volatility well, you can also mitigate human induced portfolio turnover, which can deliver meaningful performance improvements associated with damaging human behaviour.

Snowgum Financial Services embraces balanced diversification with targetted concentrated exposures to attractive opportunities. By taking the story out of the equation, we can create portfolios designed to lower risk for individual investors.


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Insurance


Personal Risk Insurance

Insurance


Personal Risk Insurance

Managing Risk

Good financial planning means taking measures to safeguard you and your family in the face of unanticipated events such as illness, accident/s or premature death. For most people, protecting the livelihood and lifestyle they have worked hard to create for themselves and their family is of paramount concern. Life and income protection insurance provides a mechanism that has the potential to mitigate much of this financial risk. There are a range of life and income protection insurance covers available that can be implemented to manage financial risks, providing you with greater certainty of fulfilling your personal and your family’s financial obligations.

Snowgum Financial Services can provide comprehensive risk management advice, canvassing the full suite of personal insurances available. When determining a custom solution for your specific needs, there is far more involved than simply ascertaining the type and level of cover required and comparing premiums. Insurance products can have multiple definitions and there can be a great deal of complexity in product design. Additionally, consideration needs to be given to insurance ownership structure and the tax impact of premiums, as well as the estate planning and tax implications of any potential benefit payment. 

Once your policy is in place we will continue to review your circumstances to ensure that your cover remains appropriate for your needs. Should a claim arise, we will manage the claim and liaise with the insurance company directly on your behalf, as part of our ongoing service.

Insurance Considerations

Our insurance advice is guided by your needs, without external influences, allowing our advice to be structured in your best interest. By retaining our independence from external stakeholders like insurance product providers, we are afforded greater flexibility to consider a breadth of insurance providers, allowing us to more effectively manage your personal risks. 

We will consider the following range of insurances to manage your risks:

* Life cover
* Income protection cover
* Total and permanent disability cover
* Trauma cover
* Business expense cover
* Key person income cover

We only work with well rated and highly regarded insurance companies.

The implications for poorly implemented risk management plans can be significant, especially when they are designed to protect what you value most. 

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Philanthropy


Philanthropic Advice

Philanthropy


Philanthropic Advice

Philanthropy is a fantastic way to bring your most valuable assets, your time, experience and capital to address a societal issue that has special meaning to you. Structuring this process in a controlled, tax effective and meaningful way will enhance the reach, impact and longevity of your philanthropic pursuits. Establishing a charitable vehicle is also a terrific way to foster strong relationships with friends and family, as you work together in the shared pursuit of making society better.

If your philanthropic ambition is significant, it is likely you will want to establish your own charitable venture to pursue this. For less significant capital values (<$500,000), you will better placed to establish your own sub fund within a public ancillary fund provider.

For more material philanthropic endeavors, there are a number of steps in the process to setting up your own personal charitable vehicle.


Establihsment

Establishment

You will need to engage a suitable philanthropic legal service (or we can do this on your behalf) to draft a legal deed that broadly governs the charitable actions of your private ancillary fund (PAF). A private ancillary fund is the specific not-for-profit vehicle that can house philanthropic proceeds in a tax free manner. You will also need to establish a corporate trustee which is responsible for controlling and managing the PAF. You and other family/related parties can be directors of this company, but you are required to nominate an independent director of suitable standing to act as a responsible entity. This independent director cannot be a related party or family member and generally needs to be someone of good standing within the community.


Investment Policy Statement

Investment policy statement

You will need to begin formulating a robust investment policy statement that provides clear guidelines on governance, roles and responsibilities with clear articulation on investment expectations, reporting obligations, allowable distributions, allowable investments and investment selection process (among much more). This is critically important, especially when significant assets are to be managed or the philanthropic vehicle is of public significance.

This can be done in conjunction with an experienced asset manager or financial adviser. A draft example of what this document covers is available here (credit: The CFA Institute).


Implementation

Implement investment structures

Prior to receipt of any proceeds, the investment policy statement will guide the establishment of cash management account and investment administration service structures required to administer charitable capital. Typically, you would expect a clearing account (like a cash management account) to act as the central point for reconciling all investment sales, contributions, distributions and new donations.


Founding Donation

Founding donation

A donation to a PAF is not revocable. Once contributed, the only way for capital to exit the PAF is via a charitable donation to a suitably aligned philanthropic endevour. All contributions to a PAF are tax deductible donations. This provides significant scope to time future contributions with significant capital gains tax events. A donation offsetting an assessable capital gain essentially doubles the capital base available for philanthropic pursuits for most natural persons running PAFs in Australia. The tax deductibility of your donation can be carried forward over the following five years.

Ongoing investment returns from asset management within the PAF are tax exempt.


Ongoing Reporting

Ongoing reporting

There are two primary ongoing reporting obligations;

  • Lodgement of returns to the ATO (although no tax is payable), tax refunds will be payable on tax paid income like franking credits. The philanthropic vehicle will receive a payment from the ATO on any tax-paid income.
  • Maintaining compliance with the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC) governance requirements.

Education

Director and community education

It is important to regularly report investment management, charitable activity and community impact back to director's, donor's and the community broadly. Depending on the stakeholders involved this may be an opportunity to engage with external consultants to convey financial data in a meaningful way or further educate potential recipients on best practice activites to make your charitable activities more meaningful.