Financial planning for people right across Australia — what to do with your super, when you can afford to stop working, whether your insurance would actually pay out, and how to pay less tax. If a home loan or a property purchase is part of the plan, we look after that bit too.
Most people come to us for a plan — what to do with super, how much to put away, what happens when they stop working. We also hold a credit licence and work with a licensed buyer's agent, so if the plan calls for a loan or a property, you don't have to go and find two more firms and explain yourself all over again.
We start with what you earn, what you owe and what you want life to look like in ten or twenty years. Then we write down what to do about it — super, insurance, tax and debt — in the order to do it, with the numbers behind every step. You leave knowing what happens next, and why.
Most people put this off because they think it'll be complicated, or that they'll be sold something. It isn't, and you won't be. Here's the whole process.
You tell us what you earn, what you owe and what you'd like life to look like later on. We tell you straight whether we can help, and roughly what it would cost. If advice isn't what you need right now, we'll say so.
A free first conversation, online or in our office. No cost and no obligation.
Super, retirement, insurance, tax and debt — what to do about each one, in the order to do it, with the numbers behind it. Written in words you can follow. We agree the fee in writing before any of this starts.
A written plan you keep, whether or not you go ahead with us.
Plenty of good plans die in the paperwork. We lodge the forms, set up the insurance and get the super moved. If the plan needs a loan or a property, that's arranged here rather than handed to a stranger.
Everything put in place, then reviewed with you each year as life changes.
There's no call centre and no junior your file gets handed to. The person who writes your plan is the person who answers the phone in three years when something changes.
“Most people don't need another product sold to them. They need someone to sit down, look at the whole picture, and say plainly what to do first, second and third.”
Came to financial advice after a long career in IT, on a simple idea: families do better when the money side is sorted. He holds both the advice licence and the credit licence, so your plan and your loan come from the same person.
A Chartered Accountant who came up through KPMG, Deloitte and Goldman Sachs. She works on investing, retirement, protecting what you have built, and passing it on to the next generation.
From the very beginning, Balki took the time to deeply understand my complete financial picture — my portfolio, my family's earnings, and my long-term goals — before offering any advice. That thoroughness has made all the difference.
Mr. Balki has been guiding us with timely, practical financial and insurance advice for more than five years. He is highly experienced, knowledgeable, and friendly.
Balki and Opes Financial Solutions provided us with highly professional and ethical advice regarding our financial planning, investment and housing needs.
We help you make the money decisions that are hard to make on your own. In practice that means looking at what you earn, what you owe, what's in your super and what you're insured for — then telling you what to change, and in what order.
How much to put into super. Whether your insurance would actually pay out if you couldn't work. Which debt to clear first. Whether you're on track to stop working when you'd like to. You get the answers in writing, and we help you put them in place.
Anywhere. Our office is at Suite 11.18, 401 Docklands Drive and clients nearby often come in, but most of the work happens over video and always has — for people in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and plenty of regional towns. Documents are sent securely and signed online. Super funds, insurers and our lender panel are all national, so where you live doesn't change the advice.
Probably — and it's worth asking rather than assuming. Some firms won't talk to you under $500,000 in investable assets, but that's their business model, not an industry rule. A lot of the decisions where advice pays for itself happen well before that: a first home deposit, which insurance to hold, what to do with a HECS debt, whether to salary sacrifice. The first chat is free, so the cheapest way to find out is to ask.
A recommendation before a question. If someone names a product, a fund or a property before they've asked what you earn, what you owe and what you're trying to do, they're selling rather than advising.
After that: fees you can't get in writing, pressure to sign inside the meeting, and an adviser who never says “that one isn't right for you”. Every licensed adviser in Australia is listed on ASIC's Financial Advisers Register with their history and their licensee, and it takes about a minute to check. Ours is Authorised Representative 409415 of La Verne Capital.
Yes, and having it doesn't sign you up to anything. It's a conversation about what you're trying to do and what's in the way, not a pitch. If we're not the right fit, or you don't need advice yet, we'll tell you — that's a cheaper outcome for both of us than work that shouldn't have started. All fees are set out in our Financial Services Guide and agreed in writing before anything begins.
They're three separate jobs, and normally three separate firms that never speak to each other. Financial planning is the strategy work — super, insurance, tax, retirement — done under an AFSL. A mortgage broker arranges the lending under a credit licence. A buyer's agent finds the property and negotiates on your side instead of the seller's.
Planning is the main thing we do. We hold the other two authorisations as well, so if your plan calls for a loan or a purchase, it's the same adviser working off the same numbers rather than a handover to someone who has to start from scratch.
Have a chat with Balki. The first call is free, there's no obligation, and you'll get a straight answer either way. Anywhere in Australia — online, or in our Docklands office.
