If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to put a smile on Jeremy Duffield’s face, it’s time with his grandkids. But getting together is tricky, as half are based in far-off Scandinavia. Which makes family holidays all the more precious. What’s that got to do with finance and advice, you may wonder? It’s Jeremy’s strong desire for all Australian retirees to have the funds to do the things that are important to them in retirement that motivates Jeremy so strongly. Retirement Essentials director, Jeremy, has worked in finance for more than 45 years. But in 2013 he ‘jumped the fence’ from the fund management side to a bigger role supporting consumers to make their own best decisions.
Jeremy’s motivation was the view that most Australians would benefit from bite-sized advice at key trigger points in their retirement journey. Today I ask him some ‘hard’ questions on what led him to this point and why he believes this work is so necessary.
Kaye: Many of our members may know you’ve had a long and successful career in finance, Jeremy, but they might not know the story behind why you shifted your focus from money management to advice.
Why exactly did you and Hugh Morrow start the SuperEd business in 2013 and then acquire Retirement Essentials in 2018 as you switched your focus to advice?
Jeremy: It was great to work from 1980 in the US with Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle and the Vanguard team to make huge changes in the way consumers could invest their money— introducing index funds, getting fund costs way down, and eliminating sales commissions. And it was a great privilege to bring Vanguard to Australia in 1996 and chair Vanguard Australia until 2010.
Overall, I believe that money management and superannuation have improved in leaps and bounds for consumers over the decades with many strong competitive products with low fees and no commissions.
But I realised that even with access to great investment options, many people still struggled to make the most of their retirement savings. That’s when I knew I wanted to focus on advice and that’s what Hugh and I have been working on with SuperEd (which works with super funds and investment companies) since 2013 and Retirement Essentials since 2018. We’re striving to improve things for consumers in help and advice, particularly in the retirement space.
Kaye: Why is there such a need in the advice aspect of retirement?
Jeremy: I’m a real believer that people can do a lot better when they get help and advice – both financially and from a peace of mind perspective.
The biggest financial challenge for most Australians is retirement. The government makes us responsible for our own retirement – which might last 30 years or longer. The government expects superannuation, our savings and the Age Pension to provide for us. But it’s up to us to make it work…to work out how much we can afford to spend…and to invest it appropriately so that it lasts. That’s one of the hardest problems in finance (according to William Sharpe, who won the Nobel Prize for his work in 1990).
And our financial system with superannuation, tax rules and the Age Pension is just crazy complicated. Only in Australia could we have created such a complex set of rules.
If you don’t know the rules, it’s very hard to win at the game. People need someone to help them understand and apply them; most people can’t or don’t want to learn it all themselves.
Studies show that people who receive advice can potentially increase their retirement income by thousands of dollars each year and significantly reduce their financial stress.
Kaye: Well, yes, but surely there are already financial planners out there to help people?
Jeremy: Point taken, but advice in Australia has become way too expensive to be affordable for most people. Typical financial plans cost $3,500 to $5,000. Sure, the wealthy can afford it. But just how many everyday Australians can afford to pay these typical financial planners’ fees?
This explains why many people are hesitant to seek financial advice; because they think it’s only for the wealthy. That’s why we’ve created a different approach.
Kaye: In what way is Retirement Essentials different?
Jeremy: We’re trying to revolutionise the approach to retirement help and advice so that it becomes affordable.
We are doing that by cutting traditional advice up into affordable, digestible ‘episodes’ – or ‘bite-sized chunks’ – so that people can:
- get the help they need
- when they need it
- at a price they can afford to pay.
And also by developing purpose-built technology to enable our financial advisors to be much more efficient than traditional planners.
Kaye: I think a lot of people wonder if they really need advice. Can you give us some examples of how it makes a difference?
Jeremy: Absolutely. Think of retirement like starting a whole new chapter in your life. You’re moving from building your nest-egg to actually living off it, and that comes with a unique set of challenges. For example, many people don’t realise how much they could be missing out on by not optimising their Age Pension or superannuation strategies. We’ve seen people lose tens of thousands of dollars because they didn’t understand the rules. (You may remember the article ‘Don’t be a Geoff’ which shared Geoff’s accidental loss of $30,000 And then the story of Steve and Jenny last week and how knowing the rules meant that they were now on track to be $54,000 better off over three years. These are significant amounts of money and I love that Retirement Essentials’ advisers have helped these retirees gain extra income to really supercharge their retirement dreams.
Kaye: Is there an easy way someone can get started with advice?
Jeremy: Retirement Essentials’ 10-minute free consultations are a great way to help you work out how an advice session can help you.
Another easy way to start is to take up our Retirement Essentials Retirement Health Check appointment ($375 for a 55 minute session). With results like those for Steve, Jenny and Geoff, it’s a relatively small investment in your future.
And a great way to ensure you can do the things that are important to you.
What are your main goals?
Are they, like Jeremy, firmly focussed on gathering the clan?
Or are you harbouring some bigger ambitions?
