GOOD advice is worth gold, and some recent examples support that view.
The following examples are award winners from the Financial Planning Association's membership, and as chief executive Jo-Anne Bloch says, they show how good advice can replace confusion and uncertainty with direction and security.
Highlights include:
* A recently divorced mother of two in Melbourne, who had not worked for 16 years and had very large debt and minimal child support, became totally debt-free for the first time in her life. In her divorce settlement, the woman, aged 52, was awarded half the ex-husband's superannuation and inadvertently directed it to an old account that had a 5 per cent front-end fee and would have locked away the money for 10 years.
A planner was able to exercise a cooling off provision to redirect the funds and use the unpreserved portion to meet mortgage payments on a three-year fixed-rate home loan.
"We were able to keep the children in their schools, continue to live in the family home and help her keep her chin up," Planner Philippa says. Other benefits included maximising tax benefits, repaying inter-family loans and establishing an easy-to-follow budget.
* A couple aged in their mid-thirties with two young children owned several cafes, which formed their business, but they were consumed by debt, tax obligations and unpredictable cash flows and had little work/life balance.
Philippa in Perth suggested they separate their business and personal cash flows by paying themselves as employees.
"This allowed them to meet their regular PAYG tax bills, which reduced their stress and let them hang on to a cafe that they were thinking of selling," Philippa says. "Now they are able to move out of a townhouse into a bigger family home, buy a new bicycle for the kids and even think of a beach house."
They have turned their lives around, achieved financial stability and reduced their risk by using small business regulations and separating their business and personal cash flows.
* A permanently disabled retiree was able to accept a lump-sum insurance payment and achieve an annual retirement income of more than $68,000, thanks to the investment strategies recommended by his financial planner, Jeremy in Canberra.
"Peter had a deteriorating illness and had been receiving a monthly income protection payment for three years," Gillman says.
"The insurer offered a lump-sum payout, which after considerable analysis and negotiation we were able to lift by $46,000. We set up separate income streams, which created an immediate tax saving of $14,700 and more in future."
* With an average mortgage reduction of $4000 a year, a young couple sought financial planning advice, which helped them completely pay off their mortgage in three years -- a reduction of 11 years and a saving of $48,000 in interest.
* A family close to bankruptcy was helped through pro-bono (free advice) to repay considerable debt and rebuild their financial stability and growth.
* A client who had recently lost her husband and father managed her inheritance to help her children and ensure her financial security for future retirement years.
"As these examples show, financial planning is about helping people set and achieve financial and lifestyle goals throughout the various stages of their lives," Bloch says.
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Debt Reduction & Restructuring 
