EP7: Victor Idoko

Victor Lagos: 0:03

Welcome to the debt to Financial Freedom Podcast. I’m your host Victor Lagos and the founder of Lagos Financial. I’ve been in the finance and lending industry for 16 years, and I’ve personally made financial mistakes and learn from them. I started this podcast to share stories and lessons on my own journey, and to share insights that may help others on their journey. And I interviewed people that I’ve connected with that share the same values and mission to help others create financial freedom. My goal this podcast is to share raw, honest, transparent and helpful stories that you can relate to and inspires you to take control of your finances and only have debt that brings you closer to financial freedom. Everything on this podcast is general in nature, and for education purposes only. None of your personal objectives, financial situation or needs has been taken into consideration. I highly recommend you seek personal financial, legal taxation and credit advice before you take any action on what has been heard on this podcast. Welcome to episode seven of the debt to financial freedom podcast. I’m your host Victor Lagos. I’m also the founder of Lagos Financial, a mortgage broking business. Today I have a guest with the same name as me. His name is Victor Victor Idoko. He is a founder and a financial planner for CFV services. Before we get into the intro, because I just want to ask what the CFV standard

Victor Idoko: 1:35

are good. Good question. ah CFV stands for Creating Financial Value,

Victor Lagos: 1:40

creating financial value, and awesome like that. So, quick intro to Victor has been analyzing investments since 2009, and joined the wealth management industry in 2015. He has immersed himself in a lot of technical aspects and prides himself on the ability to communicate this to his clients in simple language, while ensuring quality of advice. His clients benefit most from his knowledge, dedication, and guided approach in helping them achieve their needs and desires in the most sensible and realistic way. It’s a pretty good sum,

Victor Idoko: 2:14

I think, I think he made it sound a lot better.

Victor Lagos: 2:18

Like that. Do you know we met not even a year ago, but I think we clicked straight away and it wasn’t just because of that name? No, it’s because I think we both have a passion for really helping people understand money, how to manage it, how to, you know, improve their cash flow, how to think more about their future, give to their future self. Alright. But I want to ask you, you know, for the listeners who don’t know, what a financial planner or a financial advisor is? Or does, could you give us an overview?

Victor Idoko: 2:50

Yes, sure. So, financial advisor in layman’s terms, just helps people plan your finances, okay. And the planning around this finances is to help them achieve a certain goal, okay? That planning can start or start at the beginning of your cash flow, where we actually want to see what comes in what goes out how you can manage that properly. And then you know, the next step from that, depending on your life stages invest in, you know, making sure you’re putting money away for the long term goals, you know, some things you won’t even think about in the short term. And, you know, then we move on to things like super actuation accounts, helping you structure that properly, making sure not taking too much risk, depending on your comfort level, and tolerance level to that. And then we’ll talk about retirement. Okay, the, you know, best part of our lives, you know, when you have to do nothing. And we also talk about protection as well. So, you know, protecting your human capital, protecting your loved ones, to leave something if something unfortunate was to happen. So we help with all those. So I think just going back to layman terms will help you plan your finances to achieve the goals and objectives.

Victor Lagos: 3:57

So why why do you use a term planner versus advisor? Is there a difference?

Victor Idoko: 4:02

There isn’t actually difference? As far as I know, you know, I should actually know this off the top of my head, right. But there isn’t a difference. I think it’s, you know, one of those things where, you know, you can advise or you can plan, it really comes down to, you know, how clients see that, but there isn’t a difference.

Victor Lagos: 4:20

So it’s the same time. So, you mentioned a lot of different services that you offer, it sounds like a pretty holistic approach that you provide. But the one part that I that really resonates is the protection piece, because a lot of my listeners are building their wealth through property, and they don’t realize that they’re not protected or they’re not reviewing certain things in and what we mean by protection is is insurances, right? Correct. So life insurance, income protection insurance, and something called TPD, which is

Victor Idoko: 4:53

total and permanent disability. Yes, there you go. You should be a financial planner,

Victor Lagos: 4:59

or an insurance broker? Yes. Because there are some financial planners that only do insurances, and they don’t do investments. Yes. And that’s because that in itself is a hard thing to manage when you’re dealing with a lot insurances, right? Would you would you say it’s just a lot of lot to do? Because sounds like you’re juggling a lot at the same time?

Victor Idoko: 5:18

Yeah, yeah, very good question, I think it comes down to a few things for one, the planner, and to the client. So the planner may only want to deal with personal protection. Okay, so they might not like dealing with investments, because that, that in itself is a specialty. Like, even before I knew about planning, I already loved investments. And I loved analyzing and looking at all those. So not every planner has the skill set or even wants to develop the skill set to actually give advice in terms of the funds management. And some people would just have the passion for it, you know, like the planners that got into financial planning, because something tragic happened in the family, and there was protection in place to help them or there was no protection in place to help them. So they’re like, well, they don’t want people to go through this. So that we will actually develop a carrier in that. So that’s why they specialize in that. I generally prefer the holistic approach because I want to sit down with someone and I want to say, well, I can help you with this, this this, because I have a specialty for that within financial planning. So I definitely like the holistic approach. And I want to be able to help my clients through different life stages, you know, speaking to 25 years, 25 year old who wants to work on your cash flow all the way to, you know, someone in the 70s, who is planning to save some funds for the grandkids, all that generational wealth, generational wealth, all that you need different skill sets, which I want and want to help the female, certain amount of clients through that. Yeah.

Victor Lagos: 6:51

No, I like that. Yeah, that’s really good. So you mentioned that, you know, sometimes a planner will have a certain experience in their life. So they’re going to focus on one, one aspect, but I wanted to ask if you can share your personal story of why you became a financial planner, and why you think this is your calling?

Victor Idoko: 7:05

Yes. So I always tell people that I, as soon as I was born, I wanted to be a financial planner. Yeah, but that’s a joke, because it’s not true. So what worried happened was I always liked investing. You know, I think my very first memory and I like telling my clients this, because Do not underestimate what you do on how you can help your kids. My first memory, in terms of advice was when my dad was opening checks literally back then. And sorry, he was actually getting me to open checks. And he was like, open this for my Nana open, I’ll be like, Oh, it’s 20 Naira, which is, you know, a few, a few cents. And that was my first exposure to invest in. Okay, but it was an unconscious exposure, because at that point in time, when I was five, six years old, I was just helping my dad open checks. And all of a sudden, I got to understand you can put your money somewhere, and you can grow for you, and you can do good things. And since then, I’ve always been curious about investing how that can work. Okay. And that’s how I then found investing. And then after that I wanted to help people will invest in but I didn’t know how. So I think my in my early carrier, just under 10 years ago, I joined the bank, and I was walking in the bank, and I was trying to find out what do I do next? What was the next stage in my life? And the lender in the bank then said, I should go speak to a financial planner. I was like, No, I don’t want to speak to them. We only talk about protection insurance. And he was like, no, no, I’ll just have a chat with him. And I sat down with this gentleman back in Perth. And we had a chat. And he explained what a financial planner does. And you know, going back to what I’ve said from that holistic approach, he’s like, Well, you do the cash flow, do the investment, do retirement and you do protection? I was like, Well, can I not do protection? And then he explained the essence of protection to me, I was like, Okay, make sense. And then that’s how I actually got into financial planning. That’s the kind of entry. So I started as a as an associate advisor, I was able to get a job. And after that, when I started giving clients advice actually loved it, you know, because I was like, Well, I can actually make a huge difference in these people’s lives by you know, just even helping them direct where to put the money. As simple as that. So that’s how I got into financial planning.

Victor Lagos: 9:30

Okay, that makes sense and how long story how long ago did you start CFE services?

Victor Idoko: 9:37

Service that services actually established the company about? I’d say about five, seven years ago, but truly financial planning two years ago. I left the bank Yes.

Victor Lagos: 9:48

Okay. So sort of like a side hustle. Yes, yes. Okay. So the, the name of the podcast is debt to financial freedom. I want to ask you, what is financial Ready to mean to you?

Victor Idoko: 10:01

Yeah, very, very good question. And I guess to me personally, it’s been able to get up and not worry about my finances, not worry about how, you know, myself or my partner can live the next few months or the next few years, not have any more money worries, and you know, be able to provide what we need to provide for, you know, the next generation, who will then come into our lives and just be able to provide for ourselves as well. So, you know, classic example is, let’s assume I didn’t want to run my business, again, financial freedom to me, we’ll be able to get up, you know, close down business, if at all, and not worry about money for six months, you know, that’s just me. Okay. But I do love care services, I’m still gonna run it.

Victor Lagos: 10:48

So being able to just have six months not do anything, but still have enough income to live off of? That’s sort of the

Victor Idoko: 10:55

Yeah, so if else put numbers to it, yes, six months, however, I think is more the ability and just having that peace of mind. I think we generally underestimate peace of mind, you know, peace of mind, say, Well, I don’t have to do this job. I’m doing it because I like it. And if something dynamic changes within why work, I have the ability to move to another job, be it in one to six months, and not worry about how I can take care of myself.

Victor Lagos: 11:22

Yeah. So it’s like when you’ve got money put aside, that covers all your costs, you can start to think clearer, you can do decisions that sort of serve you that serve your customers, because you’re not thinking about I need to survive, right?

Victor Idoko: 11:35

Correct. Correct. You know, I think if we go back to, you know, that that hierarchy, you know, going past that survival to more. Okay, how can I make a difference? And how can I continue to do that, given the circumstances that come my way, because things happen, you know, and it’s just having that ability, peace of mind, you know, for me is having the right structures in place for my business for myself, my protection, all that gives me that peace of mind. And that is financial freedom to me.

Victor Lagos: 12:04

Yep. Okay, so you mentioned the hierarchy. So the listeners know, I think it’s called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. But the one Yeah, so if you want to research that, to learn a little bit more, it gets you to understand, I guess, a framework of how we think and feel about survival. And obviously, going up the pyramid, to where we thrive, basically, something I do know about is that there were some changes, education standards for financial planning a few years ago. But I don’t really understand what those changes were, why they were introduced, and what that actually meant for the industry and for consumers overall. Can you explain that a little bit?

Victor Idoko: 12:44

Yeah, sure. So a few of the changes that happened with we actually got increased compliance regulations rather, including the regulator’s increased the compliance we need, as financial planners down to one. The other one was around education as well. They wanted to make sure we can pass a certain exam to be known as a financial plan and be officially qualified. And then we have educational requirements that kicking in a few years. So all planners in the next few years need to have a certain level of qualifications, a bachelor’s degree, at least in financial planning, or something very related. So why that came in was due to the Royal Commission, which came up a while ago, and they really wanted to strengthen the industry, you know, and actually protect mum and dads as much as as they can. And also ensure that people getting into financial planning have the necessary skills to help people achieve the goals and objectives. Because if you think about it, a lot revolves around finances, you know, not maybe my fully understand or appreciate that, but a lot of life just revolves around finances.

Victor Lagos: 13:59

Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. Because I did have a buyer’s agent on last episode, his name is Alex, meantime, we’re really just talking about regulation around property investment, because that’s a big financial decision that people make, and many Australians want to actually, you know, grow their property portfolio. But then you’ve got these people that sell property, that present to be experts, and they call themselves you know, a property strategist or, you know, what I’m talking about, right? And, and so there’s no education requirements. There’s no disclosure requirements. It’s not regulated at all, yet. They’re giving basically financial advice when it comes to property, because they’re trying to help people generate wealth through property, but they’re getting paid by a developer or a builder. And many times they’re not disclosing how much they earn. So what’s your view on that? Mu? Are you aware that that happens in the industry?

Victor Idoko: 14:55

Yes, I am aware that that happens and I always encourage my clients to You go to a specialist but not the specialist, you’re going to, you know, I definitely value the professionalism a buyer’s agent can bring, you know, broker can bring an accountant can bring a financial planner can bring, and people sometimes do not actually look at the specific differences as to what these people can do. Okay, so if a client comes to me and wants tax advice, I’m like, Well, I’m not an accountant. And yes, then we may be able to give you incidental tax advisor. The same goes for, you know, property, okay? So yes, you might be seeing a specialist just to ensure they are actually allowed to give you a certain kind of advice. And generally, you should have a dream team. When I say Dream Team, you should have your broker, you should have a financial plan, have your accountant who can all work together to ensure you’re hitting your goals and objectives. So property is a very interesting space, you know, we can have a whole series of podcasts just just on, you know, properties and special specialists that can help you there. Well, I

Victor Lagos: 16:04

wanted to ask you about that. Because as many of my listeners, and my clients are property investors, and some of them don’t think to invest in shares, managed funds or other investment classes, they just want property. They may think they don’t need a financial planner. But as they grow their wealth, they obviously need to protect it right with the right insurance. So we talked about, you know, what insurance is? sort of high level, but how can they actually help people? And many of my clients will say, I already have, you know, my life insurance and stuff in my super. So can you sort of help a little bit that help other people understand, like, what is insurance they have? And should they be reviewing that if they growing the portfolio?

Victor Idoko: 16:46

Yes. So good. Good question. And yeah, I’ll talk about two things that, you know, one protection is very important because it protects different things. And I’ll just zone in on income protection, okay, income protection protects you from injury or protects your income, from injury or illness. So if you’re unable to work due to injury or illness, you get a certain amount paid to you by an insurer. Okay. And that’s very important, because as we go through life stages, and, you know, think about the life stage, the late life stage, you transfer lots of your human capital, into physical capital. So literally you’re working, you’re earning, saving, and then you building on that. So if something happens to you, in the early stage of life, you haven’t had enough time to transfer the human capital, your ability to work, to financial capital. So that is a very key thing that people need to protect. Because I know personally, that I know, for most people, the few, the one thing that will stop you from getting out of bed to work is injury or illness, everything else you might be able to work through. So that’s what property investors need, you still need to pay down your mortgage, you still need to build some wealth over time. And protection helps you not go backwards if something was to happen along the way for a short time for a long time, touch wood, and groceries not. So that’s one aspect about protection, I think the other aspects as well as people feel they might have enough cover in the Super, or they might have enough covered because an employer has provided stem, some big employers do that. However, this employee hasn’t sat down with you to know what you want in the next two 520 years. To giving you a default covers a good analogy, I like thinking I like using this think about a six foot five person using a kid’s umbrella in a storm. It’s not going to work. Okay. So that’s the way to think about all the other insurances or protections you might have. And you haven’t actually seen a professional to actually put in place for you. It’s not elaborate enough, it doesn’t give you the necessary cover. It might not even work, you know, going back to the umbrella cases where you might be holding it, the storm is coming, you might not be able to open it. So yeah, those are two aspects, I’ll really get people to think about very important.

Victor Lagos: 19:10

Before we touch on the other insurances. I wanted to ask about your own occupation, or any occupation. So a lot of people don’t know about this, but your some of your insurance covers might be for any occupation, which you can elaborate on this. But it basically means that if you’re unable to work, but you can in your particular profession, but you can work in any other job. They can basically say, Well, you’re not covered. But if you’re covered for your own occupation, especially if you’re a high income earner, then if you can’t do that role because of a certain injury or illness, then you are covered. Is that basically what I mean?

Victor Idoko: 19:47

Yeah, correct. I’ll just add a few points to that. And I like using giving some analogies that you know many people can understand. So think about a surgeon and surgery need to open someone up you need to go in and fix whatever you is not quite right in there. So if for some reason you have bad fingers, for some reason, you know, you’re not you’ve broken them or you know, you have a degenerative disease or whatever, and you can’t do that, you still have the mental ability, but you can’t actually go up and open someone and do what you have to do. So for your own occupation, if that surgeon had the right insurances in place, they will get a payout. So well, they can be a surgeon, again, by opening people up, but they can actually do the research work or they can coach other surgeons to be, you know, as good as they are, help them be qualified. So from an own occupation perspective, that surgeon will get a payout if something happens to the fingers while they could still work. And while they could still work on each other’s CV, so while it’s fun, any occupation, if the cover was just an any occupation, that will not get covered, because, alright, sorry, I’ll change that that will not get a payout. Okay, so that will still get covered. And that’s where we advise is make sure we’re covering the right person with the right terms so that we’ll get cover, but they won’t get a payout. So that means if something happens to your fingers, and they couldn’t actually perform surgery, and so on, they insurance say, Well, you’re not covered for your own occupation, you called for any occupation, so you can still go work and do something else. So what will they pay them, then they will not get a payout, because they can still go find another job because their mental ability to use sergeant’s exam. So say

Victor Lagos: 21:33

a surgeon is earning half a million dollars a year. And that instance, they’re not covered for their own occupation. They could put the claim in, they’ll say, sorry, you know, covered. So they get nothing. And then they go and get a job for 80 grand a year or 60. Grand

Victor Idoko: 21:49

incorrect, I need to go we’re I don’t know, I’ll just pull something up a, we need to do a lecture or the sergeant, something like that. So it’s very key, because I always tell my clients this insurance is rather protection is the event happened to you is a possibility, right? But if it happens to you, that’s 100%. Already, because it’s happened to you. So yes, you might say, well, you only happens to three out of 10. But if you’re one of those three, that’s 100% chance, so you should not actually take that lightly.

Victor Lagos: 22:22

Well, that seems like a no brainer, because say you are a high income earner, like a surgeon or some other professional, then you’re most, most likely you’ve got financial commitments at that higher level of income. So if you weren’t covered, and you weren’t able to earn that level of income anymore, but you still had to make repayments on all your debts and your property portfolio, then how do you do it? Right? It’s negatively geared or whatnot, you have to cover the costs. And either you have to sell down your assets, and slow down your wealth journey. And you may never ever get to the same point because your income may not reach those same levels. And the insurances within super, did they ever cover own occupation? Can you call the insurance with the Super and say I want to change it.

Victor Idoko: 23:07

So what the best way to actually look at that is to go to the comprehensive providers and actually be covered. Okay, one of the things that many people will not know as well, the comprehensive providers, actually the same providers that give you super give you protection within your super, but the terms are different. Okay, so that’s very important. So for example, if you’re looking to get some comprehensive cover, I would encourage you to sit down with a professional to actually look at that for you. Because to answer your question, you can have that through your super, but it depends on how its structured. You know, one of the things I always encourage people and tell them that the structuring is very important, depends on how we structured and then you should be able to have own occupation.

Victor Lagos: 23:53

Are you able to do insurance reviews for people within their super make changes on their behalf within their super fund? Is that something you do something

Victor Idoko: 24:01

correct. So that’s something we do you know, and that’s, that’s the whole planning for the person’s goals and objectives to be met. So we can help them that we can guide them because it’s not something you look at every day. So these actually have lots of regulations and, you know, terms and the company has actually changed structures on a consistent basis. So it’s good to

Victor Lagos: 24:27

stay on top of a new, that’s what you do day in day out to it makes sense that you’ll be able to, you know, recognize most policies, you’ll know, you know, the underwriter you know whether they can change it, restructure it or switch altogether. That makes sense, actually. So for the people out there who think that, you know, because some people think that not everyone needs a financial planner, would you agree, or do you think everyone would need them?

Victor Idoko: 24:49

Yeah, so that’s, that’s very interesting question, right? Because people can go through life without the financial planner, so I might just change a word there. So The word is want. I think everyone wants a financial planner, I’m gonna say one you should consider one. Do you need one? Not really, not everyone needs one. So to set in people that definitely need one, because you’re going through certain things in life where they cannot actually plan anything around your finances. But as everyone wants one, because we can help you take things to another level, just because we have the right strategies and structures in place to actually guide you in that. I’ll call it a one everyone wants a financial plan.

Victor Lagos: 25:31

So some people don’t even know they want one. But maybe after listening to this, or realize I don’t want a financial planner, and they have to obviously weigh up the cost versus the benefit and whatnot. Right?

Victor Idoko: 25:41

Yeah. So you know, you raise a good point there, because part of the regulations are right, a part of the changes that have come through has made financial planning more of a profession these days, you know, you need to go through setting the amount of training, you need to cover a few puddles to become a planner, you know, so most planners, when you sit down with them, there will tell you when you do not need one, if you need one, or if it’s not cost beneficial for you. You know, I always tell my clients that look, if it’s not value for money, and we’ll tell you, because I don’t want to put you in a position where you’re worse off when you actually came to me. So in terms of value for money or cost, generally will let you know, okay, this is cost beneficial, okay, or let’s start with this, and then get to that overtime, because you need to save more before you can actually invest. So along those lines, so cost benefit will be will be definitely discussed,

Victor Lagos: 26:32

okay, now like that. So it’s like, even though yes, you get paid a fee for your service, to prepare, you know, statement of advice. And then of course, there’s probably insurances and one that you get paid on. But you will look at that the customers because you, you know, not just because it’s ethical, but because you’re bound by regulation that says you need to actually show what’s the cost benefit for this particular, you know, insurance in particular wealth planning. And if it doesn’t make sense financially to them, then you can’t advise on it and say, you should take this product just because you get paid.

Victor Idoko: 27:04

It’s correct. Correct. So yeah, but he’s that definitely cost benefit analysis. And I think that’s one of the reasons I’m very happy with the changes. And one of the reasons actually decided, okay, look, changes are coming in a lot of the changes, let me start my own business.

Victor Lagos: 27:19

And I remember you mentioned once the amount of education that you’ve you’ve undertaken as well, because, you know, with the, with the changes, and more plant planners needing to have a certain standard bachelor’s you mentioned, you’ve already got that under your belt, right?

Victor Idoko: 27:36

Yes, I always tell my clients and those that after that I have studied a little bit too much. Which, which is good luck. I do love technical aspect. I think I’m blessed because I can relate to most people, while as the technical aspect is something that never ends. And it’s a good thing for me to actually keep on top of that. I generally love studying and I won’t stop unfortunately, or fortunately, however you want to look at it.

Victor Lagos: 27:59

Well, that’s how you stay a master of your craft. Right? Just keep learning, keep growing and helping others. Watch what you learn, teach others what you learn. So my other question about insurance while we’re still on the topic was, what about the insurance that banks offer to the customers? I know, I get an email sometimes from my bank saying, oh, partner with AIA or whatnot. Is that general insurance? Or is it still fully underwritten? Same what you can provide?

Victor Idoko: 28:27

Yeah, so those kinds of insurances are actually not underwritten? You know, and I put a general term out there because depends on the contract, right. So most of the ones provided by the banks, called the loan protection cup, you know, certainly not generally comprehensive in the fact that comparing comparing the loan insurance cover to something like income protection, the loan insurance protection or cover only covers your mortgage. Okay, while as you know, most people will not be spending 100% of the income on new mortgages. So going back to the umbrella analogy, as well, it’s a small umbrella compared to what you should be covering, and sometimes, because it’s not underwritten, it’s actually at a higher cost. Okay, because now you’re taking the risk of everyone else, even though everyone’s health is different, because that’s how underwriting and that’s how pricing of protection works. You know, the higher risk you are to the company, the higher premiums you potentially pay, so the underwritten, the ones that are not underwritten and provided by the banks generally more expensive

Victor Lagos: 29:35

unless of course you’re someone that is high risk

Victor Idoko: 29:38

Correct? Yeah. So always put it in terms of priority for clients, you know, so for example, we want underwritten cover, but sometimes if we cannot get underwritten cover, we might look at other options for you.

Victor Lagos: 29:51

Yeah, that makes sense. And just so the listeners know I do have income protection, life insurance and

Victor Idoko: 29:56

TBD. We can be very good friends now.

Victor Lagos: 29:59

Yes. We are Yeah. What do you mean by both vectors?

Victor Idoko: 30:01

That there’s always room for improvement? Yeah, that’s

Victor Lagos: 30:04

okay. So my next question would be around people who want to use their super to invest in say they want to invest in residential or commercial property? Would they need a self managed Superfund or an SMSF? To do this? And what should they consider before going down this path?

Victor Idoko: 30:22

Yeah, so generally people that want to invest in direct property, so on that property actually directly, yes, they’ll need to set up some form of self managed Superfund to to accomplish this goal. Okay. I think what they really need to consider a few things is like one, do they really need one. Because yes, I know lost, lots of people love investing in property, and I’m very pro property with my clients, I love it when do it. Lifestyle really matters. You know, if you’re two years away from retirement, just throwing that out there, it might not be the best for you to then buy a property and then, you know, look at paying down that mortgage, within two years, fairly, fairly hard to do. So life stage really matters. And in terms of setting up an SMS, SMS app as well, one of the key things is the operational aspect of the SMSF, you as the trustee, and now liable for lots of the operational aspects of the SMSF. So that’s something I’ll get you to get client viewers out there to really consider, you need to be able to one want to do lots of those operational aspects, or want to learn how to do it. Because if you assign that I don’t want to deal about finances, just want to look at it once a year, an SMSF might not be ideal for you. And SMSF is so complex, I can go on about a few other things. But look liquidity as was a very key key aspect in terms of setting up an SMSF

Victor Lagos: 31:49

liquidity, meaning how much cash or, you know, accessible money they can access without having to sell down. Yep. Yeah. And it’s not cheap to set up an SMSF is

Victor Idoko: 32:01

50,000? No, no, it’s not cheap to set up an SMSF. Look, generally, you need an adviser, an accountant and an SMSF auditor to help you with a few things in terms of the writing and your personal aspect as well. So it’s not cheap. So there’s that cost effectiveness as well. Yeah, always look at for clients.

Victor Lagos: 32:19

Okay, so someone did want to buy a property, you could sit down with them and say, Alright, if you did buy a property with an SMSF, and we look at all these costs, versus if you, you know, set up, you know, an industry fund or retail fund or, you know, a rap account or something like that, you’d compare and say which one is actually going to pay you more over the long term, and which one’s going to cost you less?

Victor Idoko: 32:42

Yeah, so we will do that. I think one of the things we really do that I’m really happy about is we try to give lots of our clients perspective, if they don’t have a clear idea of what they want as a goal of an objective for the next 1020 years. Because financial planning is really planning for the future is not looking at the retrospective aspect of lives. So we do modeling so we can model okay, you get an SMSF you buy property in there, what does that look like? 10 years, you go to a normal master trust account, you have a certain level investment in there. You make contributions, what does that look like after 10 years, you’re going to wrap accounts? Where you have a little bit more tailoring, what does that look like after 10 years, you know, present that to decline saying, okay, look, you have these options? Do you want a B or C or D? Okay. And then they can actually get perspective as to okay, what they need. And looks funny enough, some of my clients will model this out, like Victor actually don’t need that much money. So Okay, how about I spent more than I saving now, you know, these are clients that are saving a lot. So that perspective is key for people that don’t have a set goal and objective they want to have in 1020 years time.

Victor Lagos: 33:54

Sounds like a pretty good place to view and they say I need to spend more. Yeah, I think a lot more listeners on the other side of that.

Victor Idoko: 34:00

Sure. So look at Altea, about 2% of my clients actually get to that point, or come to me, and we model that and you’re like, Well, okay, no, I don’t want to save this amount, because I’m happy as to where I can be in 1010 20 years. Yeah,

Victor Lagos: 34:13

I like that. I mean, one of the things I was gonna ask you, and you started touching on it with examples, but can you give us a couple of examples of clients that you’ve helped with, you know, setting up the right insurances, or possibly investments, and then also help them with claims? Because that obviously has an impact. And I want to know what sort of impact that had on their lives?

Victor Idoko: 34:31

Correct? Correct. They always say you never forget your first claim. So this was my first claim. clients that I dealt when she came, this was back when I was in the in the bank. Okay, she came to me. I just throw out numbers a few years ago, and she wanted to reduce her personal protection covers. So we did something called an insurance needs analysis because it depends on what in visuals need again, after around our house like, unfortunately, you actually need more insurances like Victor, I came to reduce my cover and potentially cancel what you’re telling me I need more insurance. I explained it, you know, we went through the insurance needs nice is which is a rational approach to okay, why do you need X amount of cover? And she’s okay makes sense that’s fine. And then we put that cover in or either we increase the cover she had about a year after that she had breast cancer, okay. And she called me she was like, Victor, I have breast cancer, what do we do? And I was like, Okay, leave that with me. And let me get back to you just focus on your health for the next few days, and I’ll give you a call. So went back to all the insurances we put in and found out what she couldn’t claim on. Okay, so she, we then put the forms together, unfortunately, back then you needed the clients that come in to physically sign, okay, so she came in, but she came in with with her, I forgotten the name, obviously, I’m not a medical professional. Because she just had sorry, those those medical devices helping circulate blood. So she came in with that, and, you know, we sign the forms and everything. So it was quite emotional for me, because that was my first client that I helped increase carbon, you know, helping claim. So we then sent that to the insurance providers, and, you know, he came out saying, Yes, we’re happy to pay her, and they’re paid out. So she got $165,000 in trauma, because there’s a traumatic event. And then she also got about 65% of her salary paid out to her for as long as she couldn’t go to work. So a single mom, with a kid of about, I think the kid was five, seven years of age, then that was a lot. You know, so and obviously, I stayed in touch with her throughout the whole process. And she used that money to ensure you know, the kid had full time babysitter, why she recovered, because she had go through chemotherapy and all that, which, you know, if you think about it, if people can imagine this, you cannot do anything, you cannot take care of your kid. So she was really pleased because she could use the money to, you know, pay for the kids. babysit, take care of kids put food on the table and not worry about, you know, that financial aspects or things. So that was that was actually my, my, my very first case, which obviously I’ll never forget. So I always tell clients, I look, I see this firsthand, every time, you know, I know I’m speaking and maybe speaking to new clients across the table and say, well, you should consider doing this, put that in and, you know, some might not see the value. But like, look, I see this, you know, I’ll walk you through talking openly and by God’s grace up, it happens, but it does happen. And you know, you

Victor Lagos: 37:48

will welcome and then not yet, and if she had reduced her cover, which was original plan, would that mean that she wouldn’t have got 165 would have been much less or nothing?

Victor Idoko: 38:00

Yeah. So when she came in, I think it was 100. And about $100,000, she was covered for from the traumatic side. Okay, so we increase that because it was based on Okay, getting someone take care of the kid for one year, you know, having that help, also covering about 30% of the salary because usually with income protection, you don’t get the whole 100%. So can you pick up that. So those are the kinds of things we’ll discuss with them, and then put that in as well. And obviously, factoring that she didn’t have help. It was just her. Okay, and she didn’t have any partner to support her through all that. So if we didn’t increase that she wouldn’t have gotten the full amount or, you know, if I didn’t do go to the needs analysis and say, Okay, well, she wants and she wants to cancel, let’s just cancel it, she would have not had any covered or which which would have been very bad. Because funnily enough, those clients still come back, they’ll still give me a call if anything happens, you know, saying, Oh, well, Victor, and I didn’t take insurance. But what can I do now that this has happened, and definitely not a nice condition I want to have anytime today.

Victor Lagos: 39:08

Yeah. And I think that’s nice that when when someone works with you become their advisor for life, basically. And no matter what stage of life they’re at, if something does happen, they can count on you to help them through that with the claims like rather than just set it up and you calling a call center to help me with the claim. And obviously, they will probably read some little fine print and say, sorry, not eligible, but you will go through that and actually help them get it through.

Victor Idoko: 39:35

So yeah, so and I think that’s one of the things I was very happy about that we can perform as a service to talk to our clients because it’s very important at that point in time. Very few people can actually make strong, quick, rational decisions. If you’re going through a traumatic event like that. You need someone to guide you and you need someone that knows you. You don’t need to explain yourself to someone Okay, I’ll put this out. I took that up what’s going on? What do I do? You need someone that already knows you and can help you through through that.

Victor Lagos: 40:06

And you mentioned that 65% of her income was paid. And obviously, by having that extra cash meant that she could, you know, take as long as she needed to heal. However there could be but knock on wood. If she did pass away after that, she would have had life cover as well. Right?

Victor Idoko: 40:25

Correct. So generally, we help clients with four types of personnel insurance covers. So that’s the life insurance cover, which is paid to your beneficiaries. If you were to pass away, there’s a total and permanent disability. So that is, if you suffer some from something that you actually can’t come back from, you know, things like loss of hearing, loss of sight. And then there’s the traumatic events, cancer, heart attack stroke, and then there’s the income protection. So we made sure, all right, I made sure she had all four and all the amounts she needed.

Victor Lagos: 40:59

And it’s always a just in case like, you obviously don’t want to be on that statistic where you you’re the one that does get cancer. But it’s a just in case, right. So in this instance, she was one that, unfortunately did get it, but because she had the right covers, it didn’t put on extra strain for her family or household, right, because she had that income. So then she could focus on healing,

Victor Idoko: 41:20

correct? Yeah. And I think just to add on that one thing, and this is going back to your really first question about holistic advice, this is why I love holistic advice, because I help my clients with personal protection. And I tell them that I hope we can cancel all these in about 15 years time, because we’ve built enough wealth. Because if you have enough money in the bank, like if she had, you know, a few $100,000 in the bank, she will not need protection because you self insured. So this is why I actually love that self protection part as well. Or the holistic advice I can give people because, like, yeah, what do I have to add your life stage and what you need. And when you don’t need it, you don’t need it. That’s it

Victor Lagos: 41:59

no like that. So then at one point when they don’t need it, because of all these investments that have gone up in value, that’s the fallback if something did go wrong, but now your advice becomes Alright, how can we make this wealth, more wealth? How do we multiply it correctly? That’s a different conversation.

Victor Idoko: 42:16

Yeah, it is. And I think I always tell my clients, and I love him. And I tell him like, I hope you never have to use this protection. And then you come to me and 15 times and Victor have paid all this money. I don’t I didn’t use him like, Yes, that’s what we want. We don’t want you to, well, we still have to protect against.

Victor Lagos: 42:32

Okay, so another question I wanted to ask you, before we finish up is, are there any lessons that you’ve learned through your own financial freedom journey? That if you knew earlier, you would have done differently?

Victor Idoko: 42:44

Yeah, yeah. Quite quite a few. Actually, I think, you know, one of them that I’ll point out, but it was obviously, I mean, people didn’t pick that up. In the first is I never wanted to see even see a financial planner. Early on, but I ended up becoming one, because then I got to understand what they do and how they add value. You know, so part of my lessons learned along the way is, you need to fully understand what someone does before you can write them off. Yeah. Okay. That’s one and and the other one is, you know, error of omission versus commission, you know, you know, you we generally will not regret things we tried and did versus the things we never tried at all. Okay, so using that in terms of buying property investing, you need to try that and you need to, you just need to get the right people on board to help you not help you just set it up, but help you along the way because, personally, I wish I had started lots of these things a lot earlier, you know, in my life, but look, I’m happy. I did it, because now I can teach other people, you know, to do the right things and not not worry about certain aspects, which I owe them are worried about.

Victor Lagos: 43:53

Awesome. No. And I actually agree with you about having your dream team. So this is having a trusted network of professionals that are working with you, to help you achieve your financial goals. And of course, to protect along the way. So Victor is part of my dream team. So if you deal with me, and you know, you’re you’re building your wealth through property, I will more than likely introduce it to Victor and he can, you know, go in more holistically and look at where you can, where you can go and what we need to do along the way. So, for the listeners that do want to connect with you, where can they find you?

Victor Idoko: 44:30

Yeah, so you can shoot me an email Victor at CF v services.com. Au, or you can find us on Instagram, we have a company page CFB services, and I also have a professional pages as well is Victor underscore, wealth advisor underscore CFP Board. Look if you follow the company page, it will be easier to follow we will we will follow you and connect with you. And is your website

Victor Lagos: 44:57

CFP services. Correct? So

Victor Idoko: 44:59

website is here. va services.com today.

Victor Lagos: 45:02

Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for coming in today. I really appreciate you taking the time out and sharing some valuable insights to our listeners. Looking forward to working with you more in the future.

Victor Idoko: 45:12

Yeah. Thanks a lot, Mr. Marcus.

Victor Lagos: 45:16

Thank you. Thanks, Jason. Well, if you enjoyed that, please tune in for the next episode and follow us on our social Jason