The benefits of a comprehensive financial plan are:

1. Provides direction;
2. Instills discipline;
3. Gives positive emotional health; and
4. Creates a future you can look forward to.

The opposite of a comprehensive plan is a piece-meal plan.

The dangers of piece-meal plan are:

1. Directionless;
2. Ad-hoc – addressing problems only after those problems suffice;
3. Negative emotional health; and
4. Uncertain future – you live day by day not knowing what will be happening tomorrow.

Financial advisers and Financial Planners are distinct occupation.

Most financial advisers earn a living by selling products. The “sales cycle” that an adviser employs is usually group into three stages namely: (1) Prospecting or leads generation, (2) Presentation and (3) Closing.

Firstly, it is not true that financial advisers are not planners. Many financial advisers are already helping their clients to do budgeting, tax planning and estate planning.  However, this is often done on a “by-the-way” basis and may not be conforming to the professional standards.

Secondly, for a comprehensive financial plan to be conducted, it will require significant time and effort. For those who are commission-based may find it not worthwide to do a comprehensive plan for their clients because there is no guarantee clients would purchase products. Moreover, there is a good chance that the output of the plan does not require purchase of products. If the client do not purchase product, significant time and effort to develop the plan would have been wasted. Thus for practical reason, a fee is normally charged to develop a comprehensive financial plan that adheres to the professional standard which the planner subscribes to.

Under the Securities and Futures Act, an accredited investor means

(i) an individual —

(A) whose net personal assets exceed in value S$2 million (or its equivalent in a foreign currency) or such other amount as the Authority may prescribe in place of the first amount; or

(B) whose income in the preceding 12 months is not less than $300,000 (or its equivalent in a foreign currency) or such other amount as the Authority may prescribe in place of the first amount;

(ii) a corporation with net assets exceeding $10 million in value (or its equivalent in a foreign currency) or such other amount as the Authority may prescribe, in place of the first amount, as determined by —

(A) the most recent audited balance-sheet of the corporation; or

(B) where the corporation is not required to prepare audited accounts regularly, a balance-sheet of the corporation certified by the corporation as giving a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the corporation as of the date of the balance-sheet, which date shall be within the preceding 12 months;