Our process
We have an initial conversation to determine whether we can help you and whether there's a "fit". This conversation is free and we try to make it as valuable as possible, even if you don't go any further.
We have a more detailed meeting. This meeting usually lasts for three hours or longer. We talk about the financial "nuts and bolts", but we spend most of the time finding out about your broader circumstances and your values and priorities.
Based on our conversations, and any further information you've provided, we prepare a tailored, plain English report. This report sets out your situation, our advice, and the reasons and risks associated with our advice.
After you've read and digested the report, we meet again. This meeting (or set of meetings) can go from 30 minutes to two hours or more. This gives you an opportunity to ensure we've understood your situation, and to ask us to clarify or expand on our advice to you. It also gives you a chance to challenge the advice before we finalise it.
We update our report to reflect our additional discussions. From there, you decide what to do. You stay in control of your financial destiny! You can engage us again in the future at your discretion. We don't lock you in to an ongoing service arrangement.
About Sonnie
Sonnie Bailey (AFA LLB BCom MEntr DipFincPlan) is the founder and principal of Fairhaven Wealth. He has worked in the financial services and legal industries in New Zealand and Australia for many years.
In his years working in the financial advice industry, Sonnie has seen the best and worst advice on the market. He established Fairhaven Wealth so he could improve upon the practices of the highest quality financial advice businesses he has encountered.
Sonnie is a member of Financial Advice New Zealand and the Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDRS). He is a local Financial Advice New Zealand committee member and contributes to the organisation's risk advisory committee. Sonnie also participates in an elder law special interest group committee, arranging CPD events for lawyers. He has been a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD), the Institute of Financial Advisers (IFA), the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV), the New Zealand Law Society (NZLS), and the Australian Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
Check out Sonnie's popular blog, NZ Wealth & Risk, which he updates weekly. Sonnie has also published three books: Wealth and Risk, LUCK: Collected Essays (available on Amazon Kindle), and WEALTH: Simple Tips for Savvy Kiwis (which you'll receive for free if you sign up to the NZ Wealth & Risk mailing list at the bottom of this page).
Our interests are aligned with yours.
We've done everything we can to align our interests with our clients, to make it easy to provide independent, high quality, tailored advice.
We provide advice, not sales spiels
We are fiercely independent. We aren't affiliated with any financial product issuers or brokerage service providers.
We see the bigger picture
We try to see the world through your eyes - your values, goals, priorities, and concerns, and help to build a strategy that works for you. We don't see the world through the lens of certain types of investments, such as shares or property. We're not about getting you to borrow more. Our role is to provide advice that is in your best interests.
We advise, but you're in control
We work with clients who want to be in charge of their financial destinies. As such, we provide advice that you can implement on your behalf. Our business model isn't based on locking you in.
We follow the "friends and family" rule
The advice we give you is the same as the advice we'd give to our friends and loved ones if they were in your situation.
Our remuneration structure is world-class
The only remuneration we receive is directly from our clients. We don't receive commission or charge asset-based fees. We charge transparently and directly, at fees agreed up front with you.
We are terrific value
We encourage you to shop around. You'll discover that we offer we provide exceptional value. We also aim to make sure clients are not paying unnecessary fees. We often save clients thousands of dollars in unnecessary product fees and insurance premiums per year.