A private introduction to insurance and retirement advice

Where a household depends on one person's work, illness, injury or death is a financial event as well as a personal one. That is especially plain for doctors and medical specialists, whose income is often tied to their own capacity to practise. It is equally plain for other private clients whose earnings are concentrated.

Personal insurance advice looks at whether cover already in place still fits income, debts and dependants. An insurance needs analysis is a structured way to do that. People tend to ask for it when income changes, when debts change, when premiums have risen, or when a policy has not been reviewed for some time. Mergers and other changes in the insurance market have also left some people without anyone actively looking at their cover.

MGB's Financial Services Guide describes the personal insurance it is authorised to advise on. Nothing on this page suggests that a person buy, replace or cancel cover.

Retirement planning looks at how superannuation, and other savings held for retirement, might meet spending over a long period. For a couple, or for a family office thinking about more than one person, that capital often has to support more than one life.

Where MGB Financial Services gives personal advice, it is put in writing. The written advice can include a projection of income and spending, recommendations, and help to implement the steps that have been agreed. A projection is an illustration. It rests on assumptions about contributions, earnings, fees, tax and how long retirement lasts. If the assumptions change, the picture changes.

The same work can include retirement income streams, a budget and cash flow, and Centrelink and other government benefits where they are relevant. How superannuation is arranged sits inside that retirement work. It is considered in personal advice. It is not settled on this page.

The practical question is who relies on the income, and what a retirement has to support. A partner, children, and others who depend on the same resources belong in that picture. Family offices often want the same questions asked for more than one person.

Those circumstances are considered within personal insurance and within retirement and superannuation planning. They are not a separate service. This page is not tax advice, legal advice, or an estate plan. The Financial Services Guide sets out the services MGB Financial Services is authorised to provide.