Placing your financial stepping stones
A compassionate, inquisitive woman equipped with a Master of Business and Master of Financial Planning along with extensive experience in financial services, Serhan Mackey established Canberra Advice Financial Planning in May 2021 to help Canberrans manage their finances so they can take control of their futures.
What is Financial Planning?
To me financial planning is about people and processes, not products and profit. It’s a lifelong process of learning and adapting people’s financial habits and investments to suit their needs and empowering them to afford their wants. It incorporates many different disciplines to do this, which can be overwhelming to navigate on your own.
What does a Financial Planner do?
Financial planners help to demystify and combine these disciplines in ways that help to create a long-term, sustainable financial outlook. A financial planner is someone who can help you map a financial blueprint of your life in its current form and into the future. They can take you from this moment, to next month, next year, a milestone event, or even into and past your retirement and ensure that your finances are as considered as possible along the way.
There’s a common misconception that financial planners are only for people with savings to invest. On the contrary, financial planning is integral to developing some savings in the first place! Savings start with one small step after the other. Consistency is the key when building your savings, so we will help you to form and stick to short-, medium- and long-term savings goals and make sure you’re properly equipped to reach them.
You might want to save for a holiday, celebrate your retirement, pay for a grandchild’s education, put a deposit down on a home, or simply protect yourself and your assets. Whatever your aspirations, a financial planner can help you consider your outlook and place the stepping stones in front of you to reach your goals.
Tell us about your journey in business. What inspired you?
Ever since the 2019 Financial Services Royal Commission I’ve wanted to set up my own practice to help redefine financial advice. Two years later, I did just that. I created a business that puts people ahead of products because my passion has always been giving people the tools to help themselves. At Canberra Advice Financial Planning, we have reframed financial advice in terms of life management because we believe taking control of your money means giving yourself options to live the way you want. We are transparent and driven to simplify complexity in our clients’ financial lives.
What are some important qualities required to excel in finance?
Empathy and compassion are top of mind for me, as I think they should be for all advisers. Empathy is an important quality in finance because clients are often in stressful or uncomfortable relationships with their money. Being empathetic allows us to better understand and connect with our clients, which is necessary to come up with tailored strategies and solutions. I think compassion is also needed to properly engage with clients’ problems and find solutions that involve teaching them habits and skills they can use to help themselves along the advisory journey while respecting their individual situations.
What are your specialties?
We have advisers with a range of experiences, but we are particularly happy to help with Government Defined Benefit Schemes (MSBS, DFRDB, PSS, CSS and SASS), Tertiary Defined Benefit (UniSuper), public service redundancies, Australian Defence Force (ADF) transition and retirement advice, and the financial processes involved with DVA determinations.
No matter your age or life-stage, we’re here to help simplify the securing of your finances now and into the future so you feel empowered to live the life you want.
Contact details
To see how Canberra Advice Financial Planning can help you to secure your financial future, contact Serhan Mackey on 0422 354 617 or email [email protected]
