Two surprising examples of how talking to an adviser can pay off

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By Elizabeth Tsikanovski

It’s commonly accepted that people who consult or work with a financial adviser do better over the long term and have more financial success. But there are also some, often surprising, short term gains that a financial adviser might be able to spot. 

Here are two examples of clients who have discovered unexpected short-term gains. 

Client A worked with us to get pre-approval for a house, sort out their personal insurance and set up their KiwiSaver (of which they had been meaning to do for a long time but hadn’t got round to it). 

Our client’s employer had a scheme where if you weren’t in KiwiSaver they would give you the equivalent of your 3% contribution directly as part of your pay. It was only when this client approached payroll to set up KiwiSaver, following our discussions and their enrolment into a scheme, that they realised they hadn’t been receiving this employee benefit and as a result our client was back-paid $4000! 

Our client sensibly popped that straight into their new KiwiSaver account, but what a great moment? And how frustrating that it might never have been noticed had they not spoken to an adviser about their options!

Client B was in the midst of buying their ex-partner out of the family home, a stressful time for anyone, and had started a new job late last year. 

As part of our due diligence in assessing this client’s capacity to borrow, we discussed their various forms of income, including a standby allowance they told me about, which totalled $3800 per year, but was drip fed into each fortnightly payslip. We agreed this would help their application, but when I checked the payslips there was no evidence of this additional allowance. 

Once I queried it with the client, they approached payroll who realised they had been missing it, started it immediately and back-paid the last four months as well. 

Who knows at what point the client or payroll would have picked it up otherwise? And what a relief for someone in a new role to realise they actually should be getting more?!

The moral of the story is definitely to check your own finances regularly as you could be seriously missing out! But also, never underestimate the super powers of your financial adviser and what their practised eyes might spot on your behalf. 

Elizabeth Tsikanovski is a Registered Financial Adviser with Velocity Financial. No investment decision should be taken based on the information in this blog alone. A disclosure statement is available free of charge upon request.