20 qualified retirement planning appointments in 60 days. Funnel already built below.

First up, thanks for booking. Reaching out to a financial adviser isn't something most people do on a whim, so if you're here, chances are you want a straight read on whether your money is set up the way it should be for the years ahead.

What happens on the call is probably calmer than you're expecting. One of our advisers gets on the phone with you, or a video call if you'd rather, and spends the time understanding your position first. Where your wealth sits today, what you're trying to protect, and what a self-funded retirement actually looks like for you. The whole thing is a conversation about your situation. We're a fee-for-service practice, which means nobody earns a commission by steering you into a product, so if we're not the right fit for your situation, you'll hear that plainly rather than have it dressed up.

You should already have a confirmation with your time and the details to join, so keep an eye out for that. Over the next few days we'll also send you a couple of short emails. They cover the questions that come up on nearly every one of these calls, so nothing catches you off guard when you actually speak with the team.

Before then, the most useful thing you can do is sitting right below this video. There's a handful of short clips answering the questions people ask us most. Things like how our fees actually work, whether your situation is the sort we can genuinely help with, and whether you'd be better off just running your own super. Have a look through the ones that speak to you. That way we're not using the call to cover the basics, and the adviser can put the whole conversation into your circumstances instead.

Watch a few of those, and one of our advisers will take it from there when you speak.

Fees are where a lot of people wonder, without quite saying it out loud, whether they're about to be taken for a ride. So it's worth going through exactly how we price our advice, because it works differently to most of the industry.

We're a fee-for-service practice, and the plain version of that's what we call a user pay approach. Your fee is priced to the advice you actually need. The complexity of your situation, the expertise it calls for, the risk involved. It isn't priced to how much money you happen to have. That distinction is the whole point. Plenty of advisers charge a percentage of your portfolio, so the bigger your balance, the more you pay every year, whether or not the work behind it changed at all. We don't assume that more money means more advice, and we don't think you should pay as though it does.

The other thing we do is separate the two halves of what you're paying for. Managing your investments is one piece of work. The broader financial advice, your retirement strategy, your super, your tax and estate structuring, is a different piece. We price them separately rather than rolling them into one opaque number, so you can see what you're paying for and why.

Whatever the figure ends up being for your situation, it's agreed with you up front before any work begins. There's no commission buried inside it, no product kickback shaping what we recommend. You know the number, you agree to it, and then the work happens.

On the call, once the adviser understands what you're actually trying to achieve, they can talk you through what an engagement with us would involve for someone in your position. And if it turns out you don't need the depth of what we do, they'll tell you that too.

This one comes up a lot, usually phrased as some version of "am I even the sort of client you work with." I'll tell you exactly where the line sits and why it's there.

We cater to clients with investable funds of at least $750,000. That threshold is really a question of value. Below a certain point, the depth of ongoing planning we do costs more than the value it adds for you, and we'd rather say so than take you on for the sake of it. That threshold measures the fit of the relationship, nothing about your standing as a person.

The other thing worth understanding is that we work in ongoing partnerships. We're not taking one-off engagements at the moment, and there's a reason for it. Good financial advice isn't a single document you receive once and file away. Your circumstances shift, the rules shift, markets shift, and a plan that made sense three years ago slowly stops fitting without anyone noticing. The value is in the adviser who stays across all of that with you, year after year, and adjusts as your life does. That's the work we're built for, and it's why we put our energy into long-term relationships instead of a quick piece of one-time advice.

If you're sitting at or above $750,000 and you want someone in your corner for the long haul, you're exactly who we're set up to help. If you're not sure whether you qualify, raise it early on the call, and the adviser will give you a straight answer either way.

It's a reasonable thing to be wary of, especially if you've dealt with advisers before who felt more like salespeople than counsel. What protects you in this practice is the way we're structured, and that's worth walking through, because the structure does more for you than any promise could.

We operate as a CPA Public Practice. That means the same professional and ethical standards that govern accountants sit over our advice, not just the lighter obligations that apply to planning alone. It's a level of rigour, and a level of accountability, that not every advisory firm carries.

Then there's how we're paid, which we covered in another clip but it matters here too. We're fee for service. Your fee comes from you, for the work we do, agreed up front. It doesn't come as a commission from a product provider whose job is to have their product recommended. When the person advising you is paid by you rather than by the company whose product is on the table, the incentive to steer you somewhere that suits the adviser more than it suits you simply isn't there. We designed it that way on purpose.

So the answer to "is this just another salesperson" is that we're built, deliberately, so we can't be. The accounting-grade standards on one side, the user pay model on the other. You're welcome to test that on the call. Ask the adviser hard questions about how they're paid and why they'd recommend one thing over another, and see whether the answers hold up. They will.

Plenty of people can, and some do it well, so this is a fair thing to weigh up before you talk to anyone. It's worth being straight about where doing it yourself works and where it tends to come unstuck.

A self-managed super fund gives you real control, and that control is genuinely worth having. The catch is that it comes with a compliance and administration load most people underestimate until they're in it. You've got the annual accounting and independent audit to arrange, the ongoing reporting, contribution and pension rules to stay inside of, and a regulatory environment that keeps shifting under you. Get a detail wrong and the fund can lose its complying status, which is an expensive place to end up. None of that's beyond you. What it does is eat time and attention you'd probably rather spend elsewhere, and the cost of a slip is high.

Then there's the strategy sitting on top of the admin, and that's where specialist advice earns its keep. Our principal is an SMSF Specialist Adviser, which is a specific accreditation in this field, not a general title. The questions that come up inside an SMSF get genuinely technical. Whether borrowing inside the fund makes sense for your situation, how to hold assets so the structure survives the years ahead, how to preserve capital rather than chase returns you don't need, how the fund fits your estate planning so it passes cleanly to the next generation. That's the sort of thing where an experienced adviser changes the outcome.

Where we land is simple. If you enjoy the control and want a specialist handling the compliance and the strategy so it's done properly, that's exactly what we do. Bring your setup to the call and the adviser will give you a straight read on whether you need us or whether you're fine as you are.

If you've ever left a meeting with an adviser nodding along without really following what was decided, this is a fair worry, and it's worth telling you how we approach it, because it's close to the heart of how we work.

Our view is that you can't make a good decision about your own money if you don't understand what's actually being proposed. So we take the time to walk you through the reasoning. What a strategy does for you, what it costs you, and where it could go wrong, laid out so you can weigh the choice yourself rather than take it on faith. We'd rather you finished a conversation genuinely understanding your own plan than feeling like you needed to go home and read a copy of Self Managed Super Funds for Dummies just to keep up.

That's not about dumbing anything down. The strategies we work with can be genuinely sophisticated. It's about respecting that it's your wealth, and you have every right to understand exactly what's happening with it and why. When you understand the plan, you can hold us to it, and you make better decisions the whole way through.

You'll get a sense of this within the first few minutes of the call. Notice whether the adviser is explaining things so you follow them, or talking over your head. If it's the former, you've found the sort of practice we try to be.

Subject: Your consultation is booked
Preview: What the first conversation covers and who you'll be speaking with.
Send: Immediately after booking (fires on form submission)

Hi,

Your initial consultation is locked in. It's a conversation to work out where you're at and whether we're the right practice to help, and we'll speak with you on the number you booked with, or in person if that's what you arranged.

A little about who you'll be talking to, so the appointment isn't the first time you're weighing any of this up:

- Humphrey Partners is a Brisbane practice holding a CPA Public Practice licence, so accounting and tax rigour sit behind the financial advice, not just planning.
- The adviser leading the practice is an SMSF Specialist Advisor™ with a background in equities and derivatives at large investment banks in the UK, Germany and South-East Asia.
- We work fee-for-service, which we think of as a user pay approach. Advice is priced to what your situation actually calls for, rather than to how much money you happen to have.

On the appointment we'll ask about your super, roughly where you sit financially, and what you want retirement to look like. From there we'll give you a straight read on whether we can help and how, or whether your situation is already well handled where it is. If it is, we'll say so.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: Whether we're the right fit for you
Preview: We take on ongoing relationships, not one-off jobs, and that shapes who we suit.
Send: Day 1, morning

Hi,

Worth being plain about who we're set up for before we speak, because it saves everyone time if it isn't a fit.

We cater to two primary types of clients with investable funds of at least $750,000: self-funded retirees who want to protect what they've built, and people still building toward a self-funded retirement who want it done properly. The practice focuses on long-term relationships and doesn't take on one-off engagements, so what you're signing up for is ongoing, reviewed each year as your circumstances change.

That threshold has a plain reason behind it. Below a certain level of complexity, ongoing advice costs more than it returns, and we'd rather tell you that than sign you up. Above it, the tax, super, investment and estate decisions start interacting in ways that reward having one credentialled adviser holding the whole picture.

If that sounds like where you're at, the appointment is the place to test it properly. If it doesn't, the conversation will make that clear early, and there's no cost to finding out.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: What one client said about the advice
Preview: A client on the advice they received, and how that conversation actually runs.
Send: Day 1, afternoon

Hi,

Results are easy to claim and harder to trust, so here's one in a client's own words, and then what sat underneath it.

"Chris provided me with timely, extremely valuable, unbiased advice on a number of occasions. He is very skilled at understanding one's particular circumstances and tailoring the advice he gives accordingly. I have every confidence in his expertise and integrity and am happy that he is managing our financial affairs."
Dr Penelope Brassey

What did the work there was the order the advice runs in. We start with your particular circumstances and what you're trying to achieve, then tailor the recommendation to that, rather than reaching for a product first and fitting your situation around it. The word she uses is unbiased, and it's the fee-for-service model that earns it: we're paid for the advice itself, not a commission for steering you into something.

Your appointment runs the same way. We work out your situation before we say a word about what you should do with it.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: What fee-for-service means for you
Preview: Why advice priced to need, not to portfolio size, changes what you're paying for.
Send: Day 2, morning

Hi,

The way most advice is priced is worth understanding before we speak, because it's where a lot of the wariness people carry comes from.

A good deal of the industry charges a percentage of what you have invested. Under that arrangement, the more money you bring, the more you pay, whether or not the work involved actually grew. Our view is that a bigger balance doesn't automatically mean you need more advice, so the charge is for the advice your situation calls for, weighed by its complexity, the expertise it takes and the risk involved. Investment advice and portfolio management are charged separately from the financial advice itself, so you can see what you're paying for and why.

What that means on your side is straightforward: you'll understand the cost of the advice before you commit to it, and it'll track the work your situation involves rather than the size of your balance. Nothing proceeds until it makes sense to you.

We'll scope what your situation involves on the appointment, so you leave knowing what an ongoing relationship would look like in practice.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: Three things worth checking on your super
Preview: A short list you can run through on your own super this week.
Send: Day 2, afternoon

Hi,

Something you can do this week regardless of how the appointment goes, because it's useful either way.

Pull up your current super and check three things:

- The fees you're paying, and whether you can tell what you're getting in return for them. A surprising number of people can't, and that on its own is worth knowing.
- How it's invested, and whether the mix still suits how many years you have until, or into, retirement. Plenty of arrangements were set once and never looked at again.
- Any old accounts you've lost track of, particularly forgotten industry-fund accounts from an earlier job, still drawing fees against a small balance.

None of that requires us. It's the same first look we'd take together, and doing it now means the appointment can go deeper than surface numbers. If it raises questions, bring them along.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: Whether you could just do this yourself
Preview: Plenty of capable people run their own super, so where does an adviser earn a place.
Send: Day 3, morning

Hi,

A question worth putting on the table before we speak, because a lot of the people we talk to are more than capable of running their own affairs: could you just do this yourself.

For some situations you could, and we'd tell you so. The point where it changes is when the pieces start interacting. A self-managed super fund is a good example. Its appeal is real control over how your super is invested and how it's structured around your retirement, and for the right person that control is genuinely worth having. The flip side is that you become a trustee, with an annual audit, ongoing compliance and rules that apply to a self-managed fund rather than a regular super account. Get those wrong and there are consequences.

We take the time to walk our clients through the advantages and disadvantages of establishing an SMSF, to enable them with the information to make an informed decision. If an SMSF suits you, the practice carries the strategy, the administration and the ongoing compliance, so you stay the decision-maker without shouldering the whole load alone. If it doesn't, we say so, and plenty of the people who ask us this are better served leaving their super where it is.

Which group you're in is exactly what the appointment is for.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: Your appointment is tomorrow
Preview: Your time, plus the one thing worth having handy.
Send: Day 3, afternoon (or morning of the appointment if it's early)

Hi,

Your initial consultation is booked for tomorrow. We'll speak with you the way you arranged, so there's nothing to set up in advance.

The one thing worth having handy is a rough sense of your super and any investments held outside it. You don't need exact figures or statements in front of you. A ballpark of what you've got and where it sits is plenty for a first conversation.

We'll use the time to understand where you're at and what you want retirement to look like, and to give you a straight read on whether we're the right practice to help you get there. If we're not, you'll hear that too.

If tomorrow no longer works, reply to this email with a day that suits and we'll move it, no trouble at all.

Speak tomorrow,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: Today's appointment
Preview: A quick note before we speak today.
Send: 2-3 hours before the appointment, recipient timezone

Hi,

Your initial consultation is today. We'll speak with you the way you arranged, so there's nothing you need to do beforehand.

If something's come up or you're running behind, reply to this email or give the office a quick call and we'll sort it out.

Speak soon,
Humphrey Partners

Subject: Looks like we missed each other
Preview: Easily fixed. Reply and we'll set a new time.
Send: 1-2 hours after a missed appointment (conditional)

Hi,

Looks like we missed each other today. These things happen, no trouble at all.

You booked in to get a straight read on your situation and whether we're the right practice to help with your super and retirement. That's still worth a short conversation whenever it works for you. Reply to this email with a day and time that suits and we'll lock it in.

Humphrey Partners

Subject: Will your money last

Most people approaching retirement carry a quiet version of the same worry: will what I've built actually last as long as I do.

It's rarely a question of having been careless. The answer just depends on a chain of decisions nobody has ever laid out end to end. When you stop working, how you draw the money down, how it stays invested along the way, how the tax sits as your circumstances change. So the worry stays there, unanswered, and the natural response is to avoid looking at it too closely.

Looking at it closely is the point. Your own situation mapped forward, so you can see how today's choices shape the years after you stop working, rather than a rule of thumb off a calculator. Once you can see it, the worry has somewhere to go, because now there's something you can adjust. Building a portfolio with a capital preservation focus is a large part of how that gets done.

That picture is what considered, fee-for-service advice is for.

Humphrey Partners

Subject: Is an SMSF right for you

Once your super grows past a certain point, someone usually suggests you look at running your own fund.

Where the conversation tends to go wrong is that it jumps straight to setup, structure and paperwork. That's the admin, and it's the easy part to talk about. The earlier question is the one that decides everything: does a self-managed fund actually suit your circumstances, your goals and how involved you want to be. Answer that one wrong and no amount of tidy paperwork fixes it.

A self-managed fund can give you real control over how your super is invested, along with some genuine planning and estate advantages. It can also hand you trustee responsibilities and compliance you never wanted. Which of those it turns out to be depends on you, not on a template. We take the time to walk clients through the advantages and disadvantages of establishing an SMSF, to enable them with the information to make an informed decision, rather than leaving them feeling like they need to read a copy of "Self Managed Super Funds for Dummies". It's an advice decision, and it deserves to be treated as one before a single form gets filled in.

Humphrey Partners

Subject: Advice that isn't selling you something

A lot of people keep financial advice at arm's length because they assume it arrives with a product attached.

That wariness is earned. For years, a good deal of what was called advice was really product distribution in a nicer suit, and the person across the desk was paid on what they sold rather than on how well you did afterward. The Royal Commission put names and numbers to it, and the distrust stuck for good reason.

Fee-for-service is the answer to it. The practice works on a user pay approach, on the view that a bigger balance doesn't automatically mean you need more advice. You're charged for the advice your situation actually calls for, weighed by complexity and expertise, with investment advice charged separately from financial advice so you can see what you're paying for. When the recommendation isn't tied to selling you a particular product, it has to earn its place in your plan or it doesn't belong there. We work out what you want from retirement first, and only then talk about how to get there.

Humphrey Partners

Subject: What changed after retirement

Something clients tell us years into working together is that their super did more after they retired than they expected it to.

That runs against the instinct. Most people picture retirement as a slow drawdown, the balance only ever heading one direction. But the years around finishing work are when the structural decisions carry the most weight, and they're the ones most people make on autopilot. When to move from building super to drawing an income from it, how the money stays invested once you're living off it, how the tax sits as your situation changes. Handled with a capital preservation focus, those choices can do more for the balance than another year of contributions ever would.

It surprises people because no one framed it as decisions in the first place. The move into retirement felt like something that happened to them, rather than a sequence of calls someone could have sat down and mapped out in advance. Mapped out in advance, the same transition runs smoothly, and the money can keep working long after the last pay cheque. That's the sort of long-term relationship the practice is built around.

Humphrey Partners

Subject: Super, tax, investments and estate

Plenty of people have an accountant, a super fund and maybe a solicitor who drew up the will. What they don't have is anyone whose actual job is making those pieces line up.

Each professional answers the question they're asked, and answers it well within their own lane. Your accountant handles the return, your fund invests the money, your solicitor drafts the will. What none of them holds is how it all fits together: super, tax, investments and intergenerational estate planning lined up into one coherent plan for the next twenty or thirty years. So the gaps between them go unnoticed until something forces the issue, and by then the room to fix it has usually narrowed.

Holding that whole picture is what a CPA Public Practice is built to do, with the accounting and tax rigour sitting alongside the financial advice rather than being handed off. Not to replace your accountant or solicitor, but to sit above the parts and keep them pulling in the same direction, structured across the phases of your life rather than one year at a time. It's the difference between a set of separate arrangements and an actual plan.

Humphrey Partners

Subject: Start with a first conversation

If any of these have landed close to home, the next step is smaller than you might think.

We offer an initial consultation to talk through where your super and your retirement plans sit today, where you want them to be, and whether an ongoing, fee-for-service relationship is worth taking further. The practice works with self-funded retirees and people building toward one, with investable funds of at least $750,000, and takes on long-term relationships rather than one-off jobs. You'll leave the conversation with a clearer view than you arrived with, whether or not we ever work together.

Most people put this off for years, then wish they'd sat down sooner. A first conversation is a small price for finally knowing where you stand.

Humphrey Partners