The value of financial planning for the working middle class with Felix Neoh – Transcript

Gwen Lazarito
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the financial planners, Southeast Asia podcast, Glen here and today I am with Felix Neo. So Felix is the director for fin Wealth Management in Malaysia. And I won’t introduce him further, because I’d like to, for you guys to get to know him more in his own words. So Felix, first of all, thank you so much for coming to the show.

Felix Neoh
Thanks for having me Gwen.

Gwen Lazarito
All right. And I’m really glad that you’re here today. But before we dive into our main topic for this podcast, I like, well, myself and for our guests to get to know you more. So how did you get into financial advice?

Felix Neoh
Let’s the interesting question. Sometimes I asked myself, you know, how did I find myself in this direction, but anyway, I started will, in a bank, right? I was involved with sales of, you know, financial products in the bank. And then, you know, I moved change careers a little bit, but I was always in the financial services, you know, financial advisory line of business. And, you know, 20 years later, when I was still in employment, I came to realize that, you know, number one, I felt that I did not want to be part of a big corporation, where my career path is actually very much determined by the company, rather than, you know, what I wanted to do, that’s the first thing that I realized the second thing that I realized, and it’s also because of, you know, one of my roles was that I was actually head of investment products in one of the large, you know, Malaysian and Southeast Asian bangs, I came to realize that, you know, the way that that this business is run is, it’s very much focused on sales, it’s very much focused on generating the revenue, right, that the respective departments and all that had committed to senior management, you know, and it’s just running the numbers, you know, making sure that, you know, whatever activities we do, you know, gives us a total revenue that we had anticipated, right. But very often, that came at the expense of customers themselves, in the sense that, you know, I wouldn’t say all the time, but it does happen often enough that, you know, the customers might not actually be sold, the right type of products, or, you know, the things, you know, that they end up with, may not be in their best interest. And so, you know, when I went through this, this phase of, you know, evaluating, you know, if I didn’t want to be in the corporate world anymore, and if I wanted to do something on my own, you know, what, what should I be doing? You know, and for me, at that point in time was very clear, because of, you know, I have the knowledge, the interests in this area. And, you know, I could see that there was this gap, that financial planning, you know, in good financial advice, was not actually readily available, that there’s just too few practitioners, you know, relative to the population, right. And so, that’s when, you know, I set out, you know, to basically ensure that I had completed the necessary certifications, right, in order for me to be able to practice as a licensed financial planner. And then, you know, I, I, you know, started to sculpt around, I would say, you know, in terms of, you know, which firms, you know, that are offering the type of service services that I had in my mind, you know, that I wanted to offer to my clients. And, you know, and basically, you know, it was just a coincidence, you know, at that juncture, you know, once I had already completed my certifications, the company that I was with, didn’t give a severence package right which I took up in order for me to have the confidence to come out on my own and start this financial planning journey in that sense.

Gwen Lazarito
All right, that’s, that’s awesome.

Felix Neoh
I mean, yeah, that’s about me in a couple of minutes. To this path.

Gwen Lazarito
Yeah. Yes. And it’s very, it’s like you were really meant for this trajectory, because you’ve been in the financial, like advice, or the financial institution for two decades. So I guess more than two decades now. So you must really be passionate about, like, helping others and with, especially with their money. So which leads me to the topic for for this podcast is, you were you actually pitched this topic with regards to the value of a financial planner for the working middle class, because there’s a big misconception. And I’ve, I’ve heard this time and time again, discussed in the podcast, not just in my podcast, but in other podcasts as well, that there’s a big misconception that financial planning is only for, for for the rich people. So perhaps we can discuss why why financial planners are even more important for the working professionals. And I’d like to start on with that, with, I guess, asking the question, why do people have this misconception in the first place? I

Felix Neoh
think it for me from my observation is that from this point where, or at least in our practice, when a client engages is right, in a bid to stay independent, right. And, you know, knowing at the end of the day, that if you look at the business models that exists out there, in terms of people in the financial services industry, so we have, and it’s very common in Malaysia, and I think, you know, in most parts of the world, is that we actually have, it’s mainly driven by what we call the Commission, or commission only kind of a business model, right? So what that means is that you don’t get charged a fee, right? But you are sold the product, right? So whenever, you know, you go and meet a prospect, you always want to close a sale, right? Simply because, you know, you got to pay for, you know, for your time for the parking for you know, the petrol calm judges, the coffee, right, that you might actually have to pay for the for the prospect, right. So you want to be able to close a sale, right to be able to get remunerated. And so it’s very much what we call a commission driven remuneration structure. And I will concern my concern with that, that kind of business structure simply is that, you know, whether or not the product or the service is the best for that client or the prospect, right, you will still be motivated to close the sale. Right? Because, you know, that’s your only form of remuneration, right? Whereas, if you look at it from the other end of the spectrum, there is what we call the fee only. Advisors, right? So fee only advisors, you know, in more developed markets, perhaps in Australia, in the US, in UK, perhaps it’s much more advanced. But in Malaysia, you know, it’s very rare, simply because if you’re a fee only financial advisor, what it then means is, it’s it could only be logical that if the fee is the only form of remuneration for you, then the cost of that fee will be fairly high. And in the Malaysian context, if you were to charge a very high fee, you will likely get a no thank you, you know, I can do that. Okay, thanks for the information.

Gwen Lazarito
mentality.

Felix Neoh
Yes. So, what we do, you know, at fin wealth is that we actually practice slightly hybrid kind of a business model, if you like, right, where, you know, we just loosely call it in a fee for service. So basically, our clients do you get charged a fee? Right, but they receive a very specific service, right. So our financial planning clients, for example, they will receive a full and comprehensive financial plan, right? And because it is not a one off, you know, kind of a meeting with our clients, we actually, you know, set it up. The structure of it is more of a retainer service if you like. So what it means is our clients Sign up for a one year service. Right, which starts off with our understanding of their financial situation that culminates with the delivery and presentation of a financial plan. But that’s not enough, because we are very sure we know, I know, having observed, you know, how things work is that, you know, a plan in itself is actually quite useless, right doesn’t really fulfill this objective really need to match that with the execution right need to do something about it. So for all of that, right, under our fee for service business model, we do charge a fee. Right. So the fee, you know, can be anywhere from, you know, one or 2000 ringgit all the way to, you know, seven 8000 ringgit, right. So, back to your question, why is it that there’s a perception in the market that a non financial planning is only for the rich is simply because, you know, we charge a fee and is upfront, right, depending on in our case, depending on your gross asset value. So you have to pay that upfront, you know, to be able to get all of this and that is the reason why because if you, you know, people will be thinking, you know, if you’re willing to pay a fee must be the you are quite rich, right? As you know, those who are not rich are not going to be you know, willing to go and pay a fee. Right? And this is where we need to unpack the reality for for people, right, our prospects, right? What do I mean by that is that, you know, we have to actually share with them the reality of things where, you know, if you’re not going to be paying a fee, you are going to be paying a commission, right, and in many instances, the Commission, the rate of commissions that are being charged by each other, even higher. Right. So so, you know, that that is, I suppose, you know, one main reason why there is that perception, right, I can afford to pay all the selfies, right, fees are only men for the rich, so therefore, you know, I, I know, I’m not suitable, I’m the wrong profile for financial planning services.

Gwen Lazarito
That’s true, that’s true. And I can relate to the in, in the sense that it’s like valet parking. So, most people or at least for the middle class and lower middle class, they will never, they would never want valet parking, because it is an added charge for like, yeah, right. And so, they they have this, this mindset that valet parking is only reserved for the rich and who can afford that additional charge to have their car parked for them. So, something like that. Now, before we dive further into this topic, I just want to I guess, set this thing straight, because I realized that this is this is a term that is up for debate, how should we define the working middle class?

Felix Neoh
Okay. So, I mean, the way we define it is is very broad, right? What I mean is, you know, if, if you are still you know, not financially independent, right, if you are still so called not at your optimum earning capacity, right, you know, in your respective fields or your profession, right. You know, if you still have a lot of, I would say, unsatisfied or unfulfilled financial goals, right, ie are still working towards achieving those, then I would say that, you know, you could consider yourself as, you know, a working class, right, a middle, you know, working class, in that sense. And, to me, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, right. Because at the end of the day, you know, we did something to motivate us forward, right. And we things Yeah, you know, I’m only at this and I’m not actually fully achieved my, you know, my complete, you know, financial financial capacity. I’m not really there yet. I still have this goals, and still unfunded and all that kind of thing. So yeah, you know, then you should be working towards

Gwen Lazarito
that. Yeah. So yeah, I just wanted to get that out of the way because there was a debate or there’s a misconception. So a lot of people think that they’re in the middle class, but some of them are actually either above the middle class or below the middle class. So yes, I just wanted to get that out of the way so that we can properly define it. But now, I guess leading up to to that or is the challenge of persuading the the middle class or the A middle income consumers to actually go ahead and seek financial planning for themselves. So how can financial planners actually address these concerns in the first place? Because a lot of people who look at financial planners and they don’t, like discuss this with with their friends and their their family, because they think in their minds that they don’t need it in the first place. So how do you think can financial planners address this misconceptions, at least within their community or their, their audience?

Felix Neoh
You know, you are, you’ve actually hit the nail on the head, in the sense that, you know, very often when we, when we do, you know, have an opportunity to sit down, you know, with a prospect, and talk about financial planning, you know, talk about, you know, why financial planning is important, and why you actually need to focus on this areas, very often, what we find is that people do come in with a perception of, you know, how they, how they fare in terms of personal finance. So, one of the things that we do, and, you know, people that we meet for the first time, and before we present, you know, introduction to our service, will not be we just asked, you know, if I had the gift, if you were to give yourself a rating, you know, from, you know, one to 10, in terms of how well you’re doing financially, where would you rate yourself? Right, so they will give themselves a rating, you know, 678, whatever that number is, right. And then we go through our presentation. Right, you know, in terms of, you know, what are the issues, you know, that the middle class, you know, what face? What are the, you know, important aspects of financial planning, you know, and are you doing it No, the end, when we end the presentation, and be asked the same question again, you know, suddenly they find themselves, oh, you know, what, I think I might have written myself too high, right? Because based on what you’ve actually told me, you know, I’ve actually not done this, I’m not done that I’m not done, you know, this, or, you know, I did this, but it was a long time ago, hey, you know, what the insurance policy is something that I bought 20 years ago, perhaps is no longer relevant for me. Right. So, so, you know, the way to address is, is that, you know, I think we need to create the kind of awareness that, you know, financial planning is for everybody, it’s not for a certain, you know, type of class of people out there only what is different is the, the specific financial planning needs of individuals are different, right, it can be dependent on, you know, where they are, in terms of the lifecycle, you can be different in terms of where they are, from a financial perspective, right, you know, how much assets could make a difference, their lifestyle, you know, you know, I mean, I do mind sharing in the, in the Malaysian context, you know, with, with Sharia laws, you know, for those who are, you know, Muslims or those who marry a muslim, you know, they are still going to be governed under Sharia laws, then, you know, the decisions that you make, you know, from a financial planning perspective, as well will be different, you know, as a result of that, right. So, you have to cater for that, right, a person who is, you know, still in the queue and accumulation phase of their life, of their working life, you know, your 40s you’re in your 50s Kids are still in college, or going through education and college and uni and what have you, you know, that kind of phase your needs are different from someone who’s already you know, empty nester, right, you know, you’ve really got the kids done, the education bits now is retirement, you know, there’s going to be a different need again, so, you know, from that example, you can actually see that the needs is ever present, the financial planning needs of everyone is ever present, the only difference is that it changes over time, right, depending on one’s situation, and, therefore, financial planning is an ongoing process.

Gwen Lazarito
That’s true. So, I guess, because it is an ongoing process, and this broadens up the things that financial planners can actually offer to, to the middle class, right, but I guess because at different life stages there are people tend to earn different types of income. So what do you think would be like the best way that a financial planner can provide to the middle class in terms of each stages in their financial lives?

Felix Neoh
Okay. So if you I mean, if we, if we tried to soak up simplify it, right. So if you’re in your early part of your careers, right, so you know, you’re in perhaps the first three or five years of your working life, right? You need are going to be a little bit different one. I mean, is it that, you know, so you’re going to be quite young and you’re going to be expecting, you know, one of the problems when we do with very young adults is that they think they’re going to be living forever, right? They can live forever, you know, nothing’s going to happen to them, you know, what kind of risk what you mean by risk? Right? What do you mean by retirement? Right? I’m far away from me. But the reality is that we need to make sure that they have, you know, at least the bare minimum protection needs. Right. So, you know, you’ll be talking about protection, you know, you’ll be talking about, you know, making sure that you play a bit of defense in the sense that, you know, you make sure that your cash reserves are there, right, just in case, you know, anything happens, there’s a redundancy of any sort of there is, you know, an additional bill, that comes your way there’s unexpected, you know, you have the funds, rather than to go into debt to pay that off. Right. So, protection, you talked about, you know, the cash reserves, right, and you need to, and then you also talked about, you know, starting that investment plan, right, you know, you might not be have the 100,000 to put down on any kind of investment, but you probably have, because of you know, your your your earning capacity, you probably have, you know, the 100 200 300 ringgit that you can actually put down, right and in an investment plan and start accumulating from there. So it’s the, the the, I would say the focus is very much on the protection bit playing the defensive, right, and also starting on the right path. Right. Right Path in terms of having the right kind of financial habits, right, because you don’t want to develop bad financial habits at the very early stage of your working careers. Yes, yeah. So the focus, you know, for early career person would be that, right. Whereas, if you are so caught in your middle middle career, then perhaps, you’re talking about those who may have already now gotten married, you know, maybe you have one child already, right. So, you can already imagine that, you know, as income, you know, is growing, but then your commitments are now increasing, right. So, with the commitments increasing, then the question is, if anything happens, right? What will happen to the dependents, right, so then perhaps, this is where, for example, term insurance is more important, you know, just in case you, you know, anything happens to you, the mortgage itself gets settled, for example, anything happens to you, the kids education is still not going to be affected, right, the tertiary education will not be affected. So, protection needs is important, but again, because incomes are rising, then your ability to fund investment opportunities will be higher, right. But again, you need to, you know, do it diligently. So, you know, if you can call it, you know, for saving or automate automatic savings, you know, that’s actually going to go a much longer way. But the beauty of you know, being, you know, in this stage, you, you will likely have more so called funds for investments, you know, you can get if you if you work in a good job or career, for example, a bonus might come up, and you have the lump sum for investment. So you have, you know, more opportunities in that stage. Right. Whereas the later career person, you know, would now be saying, you know, what, my kids have actually drained me from buying all my savings. Now, I really, really, you know, focus on the retirement savings. Yeah, the retirement savings, and I really need to, and it’s in a sense, for many, that’s the peak of their careers as well. So the ability for them to do that is there, right? Like, there is a risk that they need to be mindful of, and that is that, you know, you don’t want to you don’t want to make any mistakes, or you want to minimize the chance of a financial mistake, because,

Gwen Lazarito
yes, is that you better and your,

Felix Neoh
what’s the correct of your working careers, you really don’t have the luxury of time to make up, you know, for whatever last time, and if I would just end with you know, once you’re in the retirement phase, then you know, again, you can really imagine the needs would be different than the protection needs for for, you know, death or permanent disablement that you had actually gone for, when you were much younger, you probably don’t need that anymore, perhaps you haven’t got you know, a good medical plan at that juncture, then you know, you want to make sure that you have a good plan in place, you know, so So the needs, as you can see, will be very different, depending on the life stage that one is in.

Gwen Lazarito
Yes, and I really wanted to tackle that because because of different stages in our lives, we also have different financial capacities and different types of commitments through our, like the our life years, and I guess I wanted to touch on that because well throughout the life stage, and because we have different, like financial capacities for each of the stages, how can a financial planner price their services with that would cater to each of these life stages, because it’s going to be different. And we want to make sure right that, that we can provide the an excellent plan plus execution program for the client. But we also want to make sure that we’re not doing this in the expense of our business. So like, I guess this is a very, I guess, it’s hard for me to place discretion, because it is quite a big topic to do. But yes, I just wanted to start with that, like, what would be an ideal business model for financial planners to be able to sustain their business, but at the same time, cater to each life stage of a working middle class?

Felix Neoh
Okay. So, you’re right there, you know, we we deal with clients, you know, from various, you know, stages of their careers, as well as different, you know, financial standing, right, in terms of their net worth, or the gross assets and what have you. And it is for that reason, right there in our minds, we are very clear, right, that financial planning is actually for everyone. Right, you need financial planning, you know, irrespective of who you are, right? The only thing that is different is, you know, what are the aspects of financial planning, that is more important to, to one versus another, you know, depends on the individual

situation, but financial planning is for All right, so, that’s the first thing, then we look at the clients themselves, right? You know, give you an example, let’s see, if a person is, you know, early careers, right, to ask them to pay a few 1000 in terms of fees, you know, that will be something that they probably might not be able to number one, you know, cough up the funds, or they will find that, you know, it’s probably not justified because they might not be able to maximize the opportunity, you know, of the whole financial planning process, they’re gonna be very much just paying fees to to gain knowledge, but then when it comes to the execution or because, you know, funding is not there for this funding is not there for the Oh, you don’t have this need that yet, you know, you don’t have that much yeah. So, in terms of execution, it can be minimal. So, so, then that being the case, then while we still have financial planning as the overriding you know, service that we offer, but for person in that kind of a situation, right, then the focus will be more on the product, product delivery, right. So, what it means is with just simplified financial planning tools, right, then we connect the clients to the products that will already meet that, okay. So, give me a give you a very simple example. So for many people in that kind of stage, right, they want to start investing, right? Yeah, when you want to start investing, the problem that many will face is that, you know, what, when I want to invest, I want a higher return that that must be the that must be the game plan, right? higher returns always better, right? But for us, because we have financial planning in mind, right all our advices or training that we that we have financial planning as the end goal for everyone. However, financial planning, in the context of a very young, you know, working career person might be more off accessing the right kind of investment product, you know, to suit their needs, but eventually they can graduate to what’s the whole financial planning process, but it is going to be in a seamless way is a seamless progression. Right. So So what it means is that when we do investing for you know, someone have that kind of a profile, we share with them in terms of you know, financial goals, right, what are you saving this money for? Do you have a goal in mind? Is it because you intend to use it as a down payment, for example, for the purchase of your home, a new home that you want to buy? Is it for that purpose? Or is it for another purpose? Someone else could actually have oh, you know, very simple type of you know, goals at that stage. Or you know, maybe I want to go for a trip you know, some I want to go to Australia, for example, for holiday it’s going to cost me 10,000 ringgit, right I want to save towards that. Right. So We put it into, you know, the context of, you know, when you’re investing at that stage, right of your life, think about it in terms of the goal. So when we think about in terms of gold, then there is a lot of clarity, then why because we will be asking things like, for example, what is the amount that you need to save to? What’s that? Right? So what is the amount for that goal? How many years? Would you be planning to save towards that goal? Right? And then it becomes quite apparent to us, right? Okay, you know, what kind of returns can you sensibly achieve versus, you know, do you really need to achieve to be able to hit that goal. And if that, that, that that return that is required, the ROI that is required is just simply not possible? Right, or, you know, it’s it’s going to be very scammy, that returns 24% 20 30% return per annum is required without the customer? Well, you have to be realistic about it, either you’re going to save more, or, you know, reduce the goal target, or delay, that, that that purchase, right, a little bit later. So so. So what I’m saying is that, you know, when we, you know, deal with people from different social backgrounds, then it’s either we start with so called that product, and we still call it product advisory. Right? So so it is advice in that sense, because I’m not just selling you a product for the sake of selling you a product, you know, I’m selling it to you, in the context of a financial plan. Right. So that eventually, when you graduate to the full financial planning service, it is still very similar, we’re still talking about the same things, is this still the same lingo? I’m not going to change my advice, just because you have now paid for an advisory fee? Right? It’s still very consistent in that sense, right? So and then, you know, if you are so called a really, you know, the so called middle class, right, then obviously, you know, you have the option of either going for what we call a modular kind of a service. That means you just focus on one particular area FERS, or you go for the full service, visual, holistic, financial planning service, where we look at all the key areas of personal finance. Right. So that will be Yeah,

Gwen Lazarito
yeah, yeah. And so thank you so much. That’s very, it was, I think that if there are regular people who are listening to this, to your explanation, it makes more sense. So it really clarifies a lot, because it makes sense for for regular people to start that way to have no money, and therefore, they just need the bare basics. And because there’s a, I feel like there’s a really big difference in looking into two types of people, those who have reached out to a financial planner, and those who do not. So let’s say there’s a 20, something who wanted to start investing, and then this person wants to do a DIY. And so see, that person started investing first without getting protection, while the other person who reached out to a financial planner, upon hearing the financial planners, advice to them, took protection first before taking on investments. And that makes a whole lot of difference in in terms of how they see their finance and how they are going to towards their goals for the future. So it sets up a really like solid foundation for further financial for financial management, if they are able to, I guess, get a hold of a financial planner now. So because I always see a financial planner. And I’ve learned this, through experience that a financial planner takes care of your blind spots. So if you’re reaching towards a goal, there are some are a lot of small things. And may they may be small, but they can actually have a lot of impact to your future. And these things can be addressed by a financial planner. And that’s the problem with our generation now and the previous generation was that they were not able to determine these blind spots because there were no financial planners or the financial planners were not very, or it wasn’t really known, right that there were financial planners or if it was known that there were financial planners, people didn’t believe in in the industry yet. So now, people have been aware and continue to be aware of the value of a financial planner for the lives and now hopefully more working class people can also have that idea that the financial planner is working for them instead of against them. So they’re not really the salesman type anymore. Though, I guess my my next question would be for you. Felix’s you mentioned that, when it comes to when it comes to a point in time that your client can either go for a holistic sort of financial service or a modular service? Like, can you tell us more of the difference between the two? And like, how can and what are the differences in terms of execution as well, with the two types of services?

Felix Neoh
Okay, so, basically, in Malaysia, at least, you know, people like to, you know, find product solutions, right, the so product solutioning tends to be, you know, easy in the sense that, you know, if you have a need, you know, get the right product provider, and you can get the product, so that’s more on the product side, what we try and do is we add a little bit more to that whole mix by saying, you know, what, yes, we have a lot of products, right, we are able, we are in a position to give you independent advice, by virtue of this having the right kind of licenses to be able to sign up with multiple product providers, you know, so we can actually do the evaluation for the clients, and then present to them, you know, here’s what we think are the best three, for example, ideas, and you can choose from any, and we are indifferent to whichever you choose, simply because we represent them. All right, and we’ve really done that first level evaluation for you. So that is the product side, then, you know, sometimes the customer might say, you know, buddy, I actually need a little bit more in depth information to that, right. You know, it might, for example, involve, you know, studying, you know, for example, the client’s financial situation, first before, you know, making that kind of a recommendation, just to give you a simple one, let’s say, for example, is estate planning, right? So when you’re trying to write a will, or you, you know, very often you you go and see in Malaysia, we have what we call real writers, apart from the lawyers and other, we also have real writers. Now, the thing is that if you go to the real writer, and if the, you know, sometimes, you know, it is very much the client tells you, you know what he wants, and then you just follow through, yeah. But the reality is that whatever the driver tells you, again, you mentioned just now about blind spots, so he doesn’t really know, he might not know his blind spots. Yeah. Right. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. So, you know, so by virtue of, you know, no one having a little bit more in depth understanding of his situation, right, then he will not, if the advisor is not able to give, you know, the relevant advice in that sense, because no visibility. So in that sense, the customer might actually, you know, take up, you know, the estate planning, modular service, where, then we go through a little bit more in depth. You know, but it’s, again, a little bit more, but not comprehensive, right, not just beyond the estate planning aspects of things, right. So I’ll be honest with you, the truth of the matter is that modular service is actually not, you know, very, I would say, not very popular, or not very popular, simply simply because, as I mentioned, we start off by actually placing the priority on financial planners, you know, as a service simply because we believe that that is really what everybody needs, right? So, so, you know, the customer will say, you know, what, I actually

want to do this estate planning, you know, service, and then you know, you know, your, your full financial planning service is a little too high for me, I can only afford a little bit lower than that. So then if that’s the case, then then we might, you know, end up offering this modular cloud service, although we know that in actual fact, the customer will still benefit the most through the holistic financial planning service. Right? So it’s there. It’s not really something that we so called advocate strongly, it’s just there in the event that you know, you want more than a product but you’re not ready for the holistic yet. Right. So So, so it’s so called a bit of a middle ground. But the idea here is that you know, once the customer experience, you know, the service end once the trust is built, right, because we are talking about personal finance, you know, it It’s very well, personal. So, you know, not not everybody, and and especially in the context of Malaysians, you know, I actually find myself so called teasing prospects, you know, I go through the fact finding, or what I call the coin understanding questionnaire with new prospects, and then you know, when I’m done with it, I just pause and just ask them, no, have you ever, you know, review or shed so much in terms of your finance with, with anyone with anyone else? Yeah, and, you know, basically, you can really imagine nine out of 10 of them, you would say that, Oh, no, I’ve never, you know, then you can certainly see the eyes, you know, they’re like, a little bit concerned, oops, whatever. Obviously, for our part, we need to assure, you know, those prospects that, you know, we are license number one, right, even though you’re not our clients yet, right, we still have the duty of care to ensure that whatever information that you reveal will be kept PMC, right. So we assure them, but the point is that, you know, trust is something that will be, it takes time to build, right, so some people, you know, they start off with something simple, like I said, you know, like the product advisory service are the modular service, and when they actually see, you know, our approach to the whole advisory process, right, and they will get more and more comfortable with it. And that’s when, you know, they might find themselves, you know, being able to see the value going for the full financial planning service. Yeah,

Gwen Lazarito
yeah, I definitely agree. Because I’d like to think that the modular services are actually like a foot in the door, correct for you to Kate, like, showcase your, your services and show them how valuable your advice is, or financial planning is. And once they have, as you said, gain that trust, because I think that people are willing to pay more. If they trust a certain person, or they trust a certain brand, right, like, let’s say, luxury brands like Chanel or Gucci, they even if they know that it’s very expensive, like they’re paying for the brand, but because they know that that brand actually delivers has good quality, good customer service, all that good stuff, they’re willing to pay more. So yes, I think that’s a, that’s a really great way to start off with for a person’s financial planning journey. Because if the middle class hopes to build a financially viable future, it’s important to take care of those blind spots, and what better way for for that to be taken care of them through a financial planner. So thank you so much, Felix, for discussing this very crucial topic with me in this podcast today. But before we we end the show, I’d like to ask if you if if there are any people out there who want to get to know you more, or want to know more about the services that you’re offering, in fin wealth? How can they reach you? Or where can they get to know you more?

Felix Neoh
I think the easiest is basically to check out our website. It’s fin wealth, foi nwelth.com. Mine our information in terms of our services, as well as our contact details and all that out there. Right? Or you can actually look for us on Facebook as well.

Gwen Lazarito
Oh, wonderful. So I actually have those on my notes. So I’ll put the everything in the show notes for this podcast below. And again, thank you so much, Felix for coming into the show. And I really appreciate all of the knowledge that you’ve shared with us today. And I hope this helps not only financial planners to offer more services and provide more value for for the working middle class, but for the people who are listening to this podcast as well. Have a good one. Thank you.