Personal Investment Advice

from George Cochrane, Australian Financial Services License 237380

Most of my work involves giving personal investment advice for private clients. Below is a description of my method of operation.

In a nutshell, my services consist of:
[] Personal investment advice at my office in Edgecliff. An initial interview usually takes 1.5-2hrs. The general approach is to answer clients' queries by determining their individual circumstances, especially your financial situation in the past and present and what you want it to be in the future. Then we discuss how your finances can be arranged to meet these needs.
Where necessary, we will cover the use of tax effective strategies (e.g. salary sacrifice) and structures such as super funds (including self-managed super funds), companies, trusts and income streams (e.g. pesnions, annuities) as well as estate planning and social security benefits. If a self-managed super fund is deemed useful to you, I will recommend you to your accountant to establish such structures.
A similar service is available by mail, phone and/or fax for clients who live out of Sydney, as do many of my clients.
My investment recommendations are typically conservative and based on proven investments or investment managers. Clients receive a written report, normally 10-20+ pages in length, and a 12 month subscription to my newsletter, News & Views, to keep them up to date on changes in investment markets.
I charge a flat fee that is agreed upon prior to the interview. Interviews that stretch beyond two hours are charged an additional $150/half hour or part thereof, invoiced with my report.
Clients can call up to discuss their interview report and its recommendations over the subsequent 12 months at no additional charge. Requests for advice on new sums of money or a further portfolio review are taken as requests for new advice.
With regard to entry fees paid on investments in managed funds, I operate on the principle of aiming to minimise such fees to clients.
Where managed investments are purchased as a result of my recommendations, and no entry fee is charged, then a small annual service fee is charged, usually 0.15pc pa. Where an entry fee is payable, I typically waive the entry fee. Where no entry fee is payable but entry commission is still paid, such as on annuities, I reduce this to 1.1pc, leaving any reminder to increase the client's return. When such a payment is made, clients automatically receive a further 12 month subscription to News & Views.
I operate under my own Australian Financial Services license issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission under the new Financial Services Reform Act. This allows me to provide financial advice and deal in certain products, namely deposit and payment products, derivatives (futures contracts, options and warrants), debentures and government bonds, investment life insurance products, managed investment schemes including "investor directed portfolio services", securities and superannuation products, including retirement savings accounts. As a corollary, I have chosen not to qualify myself to recommend "risk" products such as life cover or trauma and disability income replacement cover.
I am entitled to carry on business with any life insurance company but have elected to establish business relationships with AMP (including AXA), Comminsure, ING, Macquarie Life and MLC (including Aviva, formerly Norwich). However, I am not an agent or representative of these or any other fund manager.
I am not influenced by outside companies e.g. fund managers, in that no portion of my firm is owned by anyone other than my family and I accept no loans, rent, advertising assistance, paid holidays, prizes, etc, from fund managers.
Holders of AFS licenses are required by law to handle complaints internally and, if these are not resolved, to direct complaints to the Financial Industry Complaints Service, PO Box 579, Collins St West, Melbourne, VIC 8007.
[] Portfolio Watch is a service for those who wish to have their portfolios monitored on an ongoing basis and generally have assets over $750,000. The service aims to act as a sentinel, providing warnings of major rises and falls, coupled with buy and sell recommendations. Clients retain all investments under their control, though I can accept limited powers to switch within a managed fund, or give instructions to a broker on a client's behalf. Clients receive a quarterly portfolio analysis. Fees begin at 0.5pc pa (minimum $5,000pa plus 10pc GST).

I have been licensed to give investment advice since 1986 and, after working as a finance journalist since 1982, primarily with Personal Investment magazine and with the Sydney Sun- Herald newspaper advice column, began working solely as an adviser in 1992. I worked as a stockbroker's research analyst prior to 1982.
My initial university education, a BSc majoring in Chemistry and Mathematics (McGill 1967), was followed by a Masters degree in Business Administration (UNSW 1974) and Graduate Diplomas from the Securities Institute of Australia in Applied Finance & Investment (2000) and in Financial Planning (2003), plus the Diploma in Technical Analysis from the Association of Technical Analysts of Australia (2000).

To contact me, please call on 61 2 9363 2744 or use the following email form:-

email georgec@cochrane.net.au

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