The Benefits of Impartial Financial Advice

We like to think at Harvest Financial Services Limited (Harvest) that our existing client’s have seen for themselves the benefits of having somebody independent guiding them in relation to their financial challenges. However maybe the benefits are not quite so clear to someone who has tended to go it alone in the past, or has depended on getting financial advice from banks or other product sellers.

So first of all, what do we mean by independent financial advice? Well to start, it’s not actually about financial products. Independent financial advisers such as Harvest are people who build an understanding of your financial objectives, take a completely impartial view of your financial circumstances and make recommendations to help you achieve your objectives. This may be about changing how you manage your money or indeed it may be a recommendation for a financial product. In the latter case, the very best product available in the market for you will be recommended, rather than the only product available to the seller (in the case of a bank or direct seller from a life assurance company). Qualified professionals deliver independent financial advice, with access to products right across the market. Of course, they will then help you to get these products up and running when required.

We believe there are a number of benefits to be gained through working with an independent financial adviser such as one of our team at Harvest  that is someone who will deliver independent advice to you.

We start with you, not with a product

We are not part of a large corporate organisation with pressurised sales targets. As a result we don’t start out with a shelf full of financial products to sell, and then spend our time trying to match these products to the needs of clients.

Instead we start with you. We want to gain a deep understanding of your lifetime and lifestyle goals and ambitions, and then we determine how you can make this happen from a financial standpoint. So we spend a good bit of time at the outset building up this picture, as understanding your specific circumstances is critical to any later recommendations that we might make. These recommendations might include the need for a financial product, and then again they might not. Maybe you are well on the road to financial independence already and simply need some tweaks to your existing investment or retirement portfolio?

We’ll get you the best product

However if we determine that a financial product actually is needed, then we have the choice of products in the marketplace, which allows us to find the very best product for you. We know the ins and outs of all of the products in the market place and are very aware that the cheapest is certainly not always the best! Some products have little known features that just might be really important for you. It’s our job to know all of these details and to find the right product for you. We carry out careful due diligence on our recommended providers and understand in detail their products. So as a result, our recommendations will be based on a wide range of factors including,

• The financial security of the provider
• Their pricing structure and what the product will cost you
• The specific features and benefits of the products
• The provider’s range of investment funds, past performance and investment strategy
• The provider’s record for paying claims
• How easy it is to do business with each provider

And of course this is a constantly moving picture that we monitor on an ongoing basis. Maybe a better product will emerge in time, and we can then discuss this with you at a future review meeting.

This is very different to financial advisers who will be faced with force-fitting you into the only product available to them to sell.

We’ll travel on your financial journey with you

Financial advice is not simply a product transaction. Working with an independent financial adviser is a journey; identifying objectives at the outset, developing a plan, implementing that plan and then most importantly reviewing and tweaking the plan regularly into the future as your circumstances change. So you need a trusted partnership with your adviser, and this can only happen if you can build a long-term relationship with them. Every time you come to see us at Harvest, you won’t be meeting a new face and starting from scratch again with a new adviser. We build long-term trusted partnerships with our clients, working consistently and collaboratively with you over many years.

This is very different to a relationship with your bank branch, where it is difficult to build this relationship as their staff constantly changes in line with their broader business demands.

Working with an expert makes sense

We are highly qualified and experienced people. When you’re sick, you go to a doctor. You go to a solicitor if you’ve got a legal issue and when you need to borrow money, you go to your bank. So when you need financial advice, go to the expert professional in that area. That person is your independent financial adviser. The team at Harvest will be delighted to answer any queries you have. Call us on 01 2375500 or email justask@harvestfinancial.ie

Published April 2017