There are many good reasons to consider the DIY route for your financial life.

So much in the financial services industry is frankly rubbish. Some is driven by product pushers. Some by genuinely fraudulent criminal elements. But there is no escaping that some is driven by the regulatory environment itself.

Regulations make DIY more appealing

Personally, I don’t think regulators fully grasp what it is like to sit down with someone going through a massive life transition, worrying about their finances and looking for some help.

The amount of stuff we (FSP’s) have to do, to be compliant with the regulations, adds cost (time, effort, frustration & anxiety) to both the advisor and the consumer.

This cost does not match the benefit in my opinion. 

The regulator probably thinks it is protecting people and in some extreme cases it probably is. However, the regulator only has jurisdiction over registered financial service providers.

If you intend to conduct illegal activities , you definitely would not register as a financial service provider, thereby falling outside of the regulators scope.  

It usually takes the regulator years if not decades to actually action anything once they find a perpetrator. Far too little too late for the consumer in most cases.  

The irony is that regulations are failing the consumer even if you exclude the criminal element. 

The guys getting fleeced by rubbish products, sold mostly by the large insurance linked companies, are still getting fleeced. They are just getting fleeced within the guidelines and they have no recourse.  

DIY as a solution

One popular solution to all of this is to go the DIY route.

For those that have gone down this path, you will know it can be hugely time consuming when done properly.

This stuff can get pretty complicated and the costs of getting it wrong are high.

There is so much information out there, much of which is written with an agenda or bias. It is difficult to know who to believe. 

There is an alternative.

Finding the middle ground between the full advice service and knowing what you have to do is possible. 

Like the retirement workshop I run – Your Retirement Questions Answered.

No product specific advice. Just the facts. 

So there is no need to fill out all the paperwork and deep-dive into your finances. It is an hour long interactive workshop which arms retirees with the foundation knowledge they need when considering their retirement options. 

It fills the gap between Advice and DIY. 

You should check it out – it may be all the ‘help’ you need.