Your financial life does not follow a straight line. It changes when you start work, buy a home, build a business, start a family, or approach and manage retirement. It also changes with those unpredicted events: inheritance, divorce, family matters, health issues and so on.
Having the right financial adviser beside you through all those stages can make the journey to managing your wealth smoother. The ‘right’ financial adviser is one who is part of a team of experts that integrate financial advice, investment management and worry-free administration. These three services together is called wealth management.
That is the philosophy behind First Samuel, one of Australia’s leading wealth management firms, now bringing more than 25 years of wealth management experience and Collins Street expertise to the Mornington Peninsula from its new Mount Eliza office.
For Anthony Starkins, founder and long-time Mount Eliza resident, the move brings his professional experience closer to the community he knows and calls home. After years of making the daily journey to Collins Street, Anthony is now focusing on individuals and their families throughout Mount Eliza and the Peninsula.
“When I need expertise to assist me with a client, I bring the most suitable from First Samuel’s Collins Street office to our Mount Eliza office,” he says.
For Anthony, that local connection makes sense. “It’s more than not driving to Melbourne for meetings. It’s about local relationships, not transactions.”
So where do you begin?
“The first step is don’t try this at home,” says Anthony, only half joking. Wealth management includes advice on and management of investments, superannuation, trusts, taxes, retirement planning, business succession and intergenerational wealth. “Which is why most people need a wealth manager.”
So why do people try to manage it all by themselves? ‘I enjoy it’ is honest, but arguably the weakest reason. ‘I’m good at it’ is a claim almost nobody tests. ‘It’s cheaper if I do it myself’ is the costliest myth of the three.
“Good advice and disciplined management typically cost far less than the mistakes they prevent,” says Anthony.
When to start?
“Just start,” says Anthony. Rather than waiting until the final years of work, First Samuel advocates lifetime wealth planning and management, using your wealth to create security and choices throughout your life.
Ultimately, good financial advice is about more than numbers. It is about knowing where you are, understanding where you want to go, and having experienced people beside you, giving you advice as life changes along the way.
About Anthony
Anthony was brought up on the Peninsula, left for university, worked for large UK and US investment banks both in Melbourne and overseas, and came back to start First Samuel in 1999. He returned to Mount Eliza in 2020. He has also played cricket on the Peninsula since 1969.
