This is not good advice.

This is not good advice.

In fact it’s not advice at all.

In a general newsletter like this one, I’m not going to give you any specific advice. While I may share my thoughts on mortgages and personal finance, this is not the place for me to tell you what I think you should do.

The key word here is ‘you.’

What is right for you, at this moment, may be completely wrong for another client (or for you at another stage of your life). This is why the banks these days follow the mantra of ‘know your customer’.

Just like the banks, we are required by the law to be very mindful of the advice we provide. So every time you ask us to look at a new home loan, renew your fix or adjust your insurance, we will start by asking you to take two minutes to fill in a questionnaire.

Even if we’ve known each other for years, this is a vital part of making sure we have understood your needs. We need to know what may have changed in your life before we start offering advice.

It's the law.

As Registered Financial Advisers, we are regulated by the Financial Markets Authority. There is now a very prescriptive process we must be able to prove we have followed at all times. It requires us to show we take our clients’ unique circumstances into account whenever we provide advice.

So we need to review your structures and understand the context of your finances before we start processing any paperwork for a loan. On top of that, we are audited every year and have to be able to show that we have helped clients review their loans.

And this is why it’s important not to ignore any emails we send when it’s time to renew your fix. They’re not spam – they’re part of the process we need to complete before we can start working out the best options for you.

We’re in the business of helping you get the right loans and insurance policies to help you meet your life goals.

That’s why we’re very careful with the advice we give.