What sets Questa Financial Services apart?

When we were forming Questa Financial Services, we spent a long time considering, in great depth, a number of questions.  What is a financial adviser?  How do we work?  How should we work?  What do clients expect from us?  Most importantly, we considered what would set us apart from other companies in our profession, to the benefit of our clients.

We believe that Questa Financial Services approaches both personal and corporate financial services in an altogether different way, and it is this fundamental difference in this approach that sets us apart.  This can be described in a variety of ways but here are some examples of how our approach gives us what we are confident is a competitive edge in the field of financial planning.

Fee-based vs. commission-based
There is a general movement in the financial services sector towards fee-based client services, however this is a trend which we as financial advisers have been adopting for a long while now, before even Questa Financial Services was formed.  The issue of fees versus commission is a fundamental one for two main reasons.  Firstly, if we charge our clients a monthly or annual fee we forego the commissions paid to us by the financial services providers for generating a sale for them.  This is very significant because, as a client, you know that we are not pushing to “make a sale” when we are advising you.  Secondly, by freeing ourselves from the commission payment approach we are able to provide more independent advice.  An independent financial adviser is only as independent as his/her ability to give totally impartial advice.  By breaking the commission ties between provider and advisor, our “independent” status is given much more significance.

Our people
There are few elements to a business that are more important than staff, and at Questa Financial Services it is our staff, as much as anything else, that makes us different.  Our team is full of people who have a genuine desire to broaden their expertise and industry knowledge.  Our Para Planners, for example, are all fully qualified and could all be IFA’s themselves, yet they choose to work “behind the scenes” in a support role between our admin team and the financial advisers to enable Questa Financial Services to deliver the very best client service.  Furthermore, in our profession, ongoing, effective communication is key and, again, our team work as whole to achieve this, through both one-to-one communication and the likes of communication through materials such as our quarterly newsletter.

Our philosophy
These examples are manifested, above all, from a specific philosophy borne from with Questa Financial Services.  This philosophy is focused totally on client service.  So many incorrect assumptions are made in our profession:  there is almost a blasé attitude towards the financial knowledge of clients.  Some financial advisers assume far too much.  In order to fully understand a client and their financial goals, it is imperative to start from square one.  Here, through what we refer to as the “discovery meeting” we learn everything we need to know to understand not only your financial circumstances and goals, but also your attitude towards finances.  For example, when looking at investment strategies, we take our clients through a detailed questionnaire to assess their attitude towards risk.  This enables us to produce the optimum investment strategy for the client. 

In addition, our approach to Investment Strategy illustrates yet another example of how we differ from our competition.

Sometimes, it is easy to assume what a particular service provider provides you with.  For us at Questa Financial Services, ensuring that you, as a client, know exactly what we are doing and why we are doing it is of paramount importance to us.