{"id":680,"date":"2026-03-15T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680"},"modified":"2026-03-15T07:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T07:00:14","slug":"financial-planning-101-speaking-to-a-financial-planner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680","title":{"rendered":"Financial planning 101 &#8211; Speaking to a financial planner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wRcf72v_nTg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For a lot of people, retirement is the first time they\u2019ve had to make big decisions about investments that will impact the rest of their lives.<br \/>\nThe good news? There are a lot of financial professionals, like planners or stockbrokers, out there to help you if you need it. And you may develop a relationship with them that will go on for years.<br \/>\nSo, what steps can you take to get the most out of their services and get you the best retirement outcomes?<br \/>\nIn this series of videos, I\u2019ll give you my top 5 tips.<br \/>\nStarting with number one, which is to speak to Services Australia\u2019s Financial Information Service before talking to a financial planner.<br \/>\nThis service is completely free and has been around for over 30 years.<br \/>\n[TEXT ON SCREEN: Completely free]<br \/>\nThey are a trusted source of independent financial information and can talk to you about financial issues like preparing for retirement, superannuation, and even how to save.<br \/>\nI was a Financial Information Service or FIS officer for over 15 years, so I know personally how the free and confidential education and information FIS provides helps people make informed decisions for their financial futures, including their retirement.<br \/>\nFIS Officers can help you understand how financial products work, and how they interact with the government payments.<br \/>\nThey can also cover how government payments work, and how changes in your circumstances may affect your entitlements.<br \/>\nFIS Officers aren\u2019t financial planners or financial counsellors. They don\u2019t give or sell advice or promote or purchase investment products.<br \/>\nThey also don\u2019t make decisions about your payments, but they can help you understand your options, give you information about the financial planning process and the role of financial planners.<br \/>\nSpeaking with a FIS Officer will help prepare you to work with your financial professionals and understand the language they\u2019re using and the products they\u2019re recommending.<br \/>\nIf you want to speak to a FIS Officer, call Services Australia on 132 300 and say \u2018Financial Information Service\u2019 when you\u2019re asked for the reason for your call.<br \/>\nCheck out my next video in this series where we&#8217;ll look at how to work out what type of financial professional may be most useful for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a lot of people, retirement is the first time they\u2019ve had to make big decisions about investments that will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Financial planning 101 - Speaking to a financial planner - Personal Finance Secrets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a lot of people, retirement is the first time they\u2019ve had to make big decisions about investments that will [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Personal Finance Secrets\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-15T07:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ytb_thumb-16.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/\",\"name\":\"Personal Finance Secrets\",\"description\":\"All You Need To Know About Personal Finance!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ytb_thumb-16.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ytb_thumb-16.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":360},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680\",\"name\":\"Financial planning 101 - Speaking to a financial planner - Personal Finance Secrets\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-15T07:00:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-15T07:00:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/?p=680#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/smartmoneymaps.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Financial planning 101 &#8211; 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