A Wealth of Knowledge: Q&A with Zac

TIB has historically focused on short term insurance protection, but in the past few years, we have been burgeoning into a more holistic financial services business. We sat down with one of our experienced financial planners, Zac Dermick, in the boutique Wealth planning division at TIB, to better understand the inner workings of what it truly means to be a financial planner in today’s world, and how TIB Wealth is setting a new standard for client service and advice.

What is the role of a financial planner?

Our role is to fully understand a client’s financial situation. This includes knowing what their assets and liabilities are, their income and expenses, budgets, objectives, requirements, and existing provisions. Only once we fully understand a client’s situation can we begin to make recommendations. To fulfil our recommendations, we have a suite of investments and risk products to ensure the financial plan is achieved. It is important for a financial planner to understand family dynamics to ensure dependants are also considered when the financial plan is created. A relationship with a financial planner should be meaningful and long-lasting and should not be transactional.

Do you spend time monitoring market movements?

Our primary objective as a financial planner is not to monitor market movements, our focus is to assist clients with proper financial planning. While it is important for us to understand market trends, our primary goal is to use this knowledge to place clients in appropriately risk-profiled investments. We partner with investment teams whose sole focus is market research, analysis on companies, trends in interest rates, etc., and they help us build models suitable across various client risk profiles. Market analysis is a full-time job, and we would rather leave this to a team of professionals whilst we focus on assisting our clients with achieving their goals and objectives.

If a client has some extra funds to invest monthly, for a mid-long-term term goal, what’s your general go to strategy?

This all depends on what the goal is, the time horizon, and the client’s appetite for risk. If a client’s goal to build an emergency fund, then we would suggest using a low volatile investment. This could either be a money market fund or their own interest-bearing savings account. Since these funds need to be liquid and could be used in a short time frame, we would not want them in an investment that is subject to market fluctuations or lengthy withdrawals. If a client has a young child, and they want to save for university, then we could consider an investment that has a more aggressive risk profile and is geared for growth. In this scenario, the client has a 10+ year time horizon and would therefore be able to withstand short term market volatility.

No matter the goal, we try to get an understanding of what the client would want as a capital amount in today’s terms. We then work it forward to a future value requirement based on inflation assumptions, and then work it all the way back to a monthly contribution amount required to meet that goal. We then suggest an appropriate risk-profiled investment to meet the client’s goal and risk appetite.

How does TIB Wealth approach financial planning that makes it different to its peers?

We are not trying to reinvent the wheel. We are trying to do what any successful business does, do what you do, but do it incredibly well. There are many financial planners out there, but the ones that are successful are those who focus on serving their clients and harvest long-term relationships based on trust and belief. We do not believe in chasing fees or commissions. If we serve our clients, help them achieve their goals, and cover their risk – the rest will take care of itself. Clients’ needs should always come first, and their financial wellbeing will always be our priority.